


The Smolder and the Glow

by Quente



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Frottage, High ☆ Speed!, Love, M/M, Sex, Sexting, the little drabble that grew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-10 01:05:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2005095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quente/pseuds/Quente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke is aware that Tachibana has no clue, none at all. Rin warned him, of course, and Sousuke probably should've listened.</p><p>These were drabbles and they grew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A prologue in two drabbles

Sousuke set his eyes on the Iwatobi kissing booth, feeling simultaneously weary and amused. As always, he wasn’t sure why Rin had such a fascination for these guys, so much so that they’d actually come to the Iwatobi school festival. Well, ok, he caught glimmers of a reason here and there about Nanase, but really — why all of them?

Rin elbowed him. “Makoto. He’s in the booth.” The sharp teeth shone in a brief snicker, and Sousuke followed his line of sight… Aha, there, the bright red one just pulling back from kissing a laughing girl on the cheek.

"I dare you," Rin said, his eyes suddenly full of mischief as he glanced sideways. "I’ll pay for it."

"What? Don’t be stupid," Sousuke snorted.

"The girls love that kind of shit."

…This was true, although Sousuke really didn’t care about stuff like that. Obviously. He rolled his eyes. “Still no.”

But just then, someone else materialized beside them.

"Yamazaki doesn’t get to kiss Makoto," Haruka said, standing with his arms crossed in front of them like some kind of over-protective dad. "Not him."

"Eh?" Rin looked confused for a moment, eyes darting from Haruka to Sousuke and back. "Haru, are you in the booth too? I have half a mind to —"

"Fine, I’ll do it," Sousuke interrupted, knowing exactly where Rin’s thoughts were heading. Oy. Sousuke should’ve given up his entire swimming career to come babysit, it was clear that Rin got far too easily distracted by Nanase. Also, if it bothered Nanase that he’d kiss Makoto, excellent.

Sousuke easily stepped past Haruka and slapped some coins on the table in front of Makoto’s startled face.

Makoto looked up, the redness on his cheeks growing, if that was possible. “Yamazaki-kun?”

"One."

"No!" Haruka put his hand over the coins, his lips drawn back in a snarl. "Go bully someone else."

"Haru, calm down," Rin said, gripping Haruka’s wrist. "I put him up to it. It was just a dare."

Haruka hesitated, and in that moment, Sousuke slid his fingers into Makoto’s soft hair, leaned down, and pressed their lips together for a solid few seconds.

Sousuke noticed the sharply indrawn breath, the startled wide-open eyes, and the taste and smell of something that was both innocent and alluring at once.

…Right before a hard hand on his collar ripped him back.

"H-Haru! It’s okay, he paid!" Makoto was still staring up at him, lips wet and unconsciously parted. Fine, Sousuke was staring back. Damn.

"I’ve never seen you in this mood, Haru. What’s with you?" Rin said, confusion all over his face.

"You got what you came for. Now go hang out at other booths," Haruka said, his expression even darker than before.

Sousuke gave Nanase the laziest grin. “I did get what I came for. Thanks, Tachibana. Maybe I’ll come by for another one, later.”

"EH?"

It was time to turn and leave, and Sousuke did, glancing back over his shoulder at the three stunned expressions behind him.

Score one for the newcomer.

~

"Can you seriously do it all, Yamazaki-kun?" Makoto asked in disbelief, climbing out of the water to see Sousuke emerging beside him. "Your backstroke caught up to me."

"Almost. The operative word is almost," Sousuke snorted, running his fingers through his hair to shake out the extra droplets. "It’s not my strong suit, but that kid wanted to practice his butterfly."

Makoto glanced over at that kid, who was flailing around with his hands in his shock of orange hair, groaning over his own slow time. “Ah, is he going to be okay?” Makoto asked, reaching out a hand almost without thinking as Momotarou flopped himself down onto the tile. “Be careful, the tile is —”

One utter spazz of a leg-flail later, Makoto was also on the ground, wincing as the rough tile scraped his back.

"Oh no! Tachibana-san, are you okay?" Momotarou rolled to sit at Makoto’s side, looming over him, worry in his wide eyes. But then Makoto saw a large hand pull Momotarou back before a different face blocked his vision.

"Tachibana, are you hurt?" Sousuke frowned, glancing sideways at Momotarou, his expression going fierce for a second. "And you. This should teach you something, shouldn’t it, about being dramatic?"

"Yes! I’m really sorry, Tachibana-san!" Momotaro dropped his head, and Sousuke sighed.

"There’s no helping it." Sousuke extended his hand. "Off to the infirmary with you. I’ll walk you there."

Makoto blinked up at the proffered hand and the surprisingly gentle expression. What Makoto knew about Yamazaki he could fit in a teacup, and the warmth was a surprise. Makoto let Sousuke pull him to his feet, eyes still caught by Sousuke’s face. It was a second before he remembered to let go of Sousuke’s hand.

"Momo — get Tachibana his towel."

By then, Haruka and Rin had returned from their lap of freestyle, and Makoto realized that Haruka’s head was popping up from the edge of the pool, clearly wondering where his normal hand-up was. Nitori reached down instead, meeting Haruka’s raised eyebrow with a sheepish expression. “Ah, sorry, Nanase-san. My idiot kouhai accidentally hurt Tachibana-san, and he’s got to head to the —”

"Makoto. Are you okay?" Haruka cut Nitori’s explanation short, heading to Makoto’s side.

"Ah, it’s fine. You keep practicing, okay? Yamazaki-kun will walk me to the —"

"I’ll go with you."

"Do you even know where the infirmary is?" Sousuke asked Haruka, his expression changing yet again to something that Makoto couldn’t place. Wariness?

At Haruka’s silence, Sousuke turned, gripping Makoto’s wrist to tug him along. “C’mon.”

Makoto let himself be led. Really, Sousuke didn’t give him much room to say no. Looking back over his shoulder, he saw Rin touch Haruka’s shoulder.

"Oy, come on, he’s in good hands, worrywart. Come do more freestyle — unless you’re out of condition and need a rest?"

"I’m not concerned," Haruka responded, and then the door closed behind Makoto and they were in a school corridor.

It was strange padding through the darkened halls of a school in nothing but a bathing suit. Makoto felt a bit shy, all of a sudden, but at least it was after-hours in a boy’s school, and the most attention he got was a muttered “Holy shit, look at his pecs!”

He was blushing, however, by the time they made it to the infirmary.

Nobody was there because it was so late, but Sousuke seemed to know his way around the place.

"Where’s the scrape?"

"Ah — my back." Makoto turned, pointing to abrasions on his lower back.

"Stay still."

Sousuke really was a mystery, Makoto thought. He kept trying to drag up memories of this guy and failing. Was he around Iwatobi during the years when Makoto had been courted by the basketball team, and Haruka was swimming a lot his own? Makoto bit his lip, trying to remember, when he realized that gentle hands were finally touching his skin.

"Ahh —"

The hands immediately stilled. “Does it hurt?”

"I admit that my back is sensitive," Makoto replied, and realized that he was blushing again. What a thing to say to another guy.

"I’ll go slowly then." Sousuke’s voice was even softer behind him.

Makoto’s blush increased, and he shook his head. What was it about this guy’s voice? “Don’t bother about that. It’s kind of you to even —”

"More people should treat you carefully," Sousuke said, and Makoto felt fingers easing the patch of plaster around his scrape. Sousuke’s thumbs rubbed around each corner of the bandage, tamping it against Makoto’s skin, and the feeling of his thumbs made an involuntary shiver course through Makoto’s body.

The touches immediately stopped again.

"I hurt you again, didn’t I."

"No. It, well, wasn’t that. Just — my back is really sensitive. Thank you for your trouble though —" Makoto half-turned, only to realize just how close Sousuke was standing to him, both of them still in their legskins, bodies still wet from the water.

And because of how they were standing, Sousuke’s fingers slid around his waist and weren’t letting go.

"Tachibana, I —"

Footsteps sounded from down the hall, and two sets of voices.

"He’s fine, I promise, Haru —"

"I don’t care, Rin. He’s my friend. I’ll put any bandaid on him that he needs."

Laughing, Makoto took a half-step back from Sousuke, although the other guy wasn’t moving an inch. Sousuke’s eyes bored into Makoto’s, making the blush deepen down his chest.

"Were you going to say something?" Makoto asked, wondering why he was feeling so damned flustered all of a sudden. His heartbeat felt so loud…

Haruka and Rin stepped through the door and paused when they saw the two standing there, so close, Sousuke’s fingers still reaching for the skin of Makoto’s waist.

Sousuke glanced sideways. “Not anymore. Next time, Tachibana.” He turned, heading toward the door, passing by Haruka’s side with the slightest shoulder nudge. “He’s all patched up, Nanase. As good as new.”

Makoto noticed the tiny curl of Haruka’s lip, and Rin’s hand rising to cover his face.

"Sousuke — why do you always have to sound like an utter jerk whenever you and Haru —" Rin turned to follow his friend, and Makoto headed up to Haruka.

"He was gentle, it was fine," Makoto said, turning to show Haruka the neatly applied bandage.

Haruka shook his head. “That’s not it, and I’m not explaining it to you.”

"Eh?"

"He looks at you the way I look at mackerel."

"EH?"

"Never mind."


	2. Not cute at all

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which High Speed! makes an appearance and much is discussed. Also, it starts with sex and ends with innocence.

Makoto admitted to himself that it was strange to actually SEE it. He'd known about them from the very start, possibly even from the end of elementary school, but that still didn't translate to having IT played out in front of him like an impossibly embarrassing scene from a movie. In movies, Makoto was pretty certain that the action would still be going on while the watchers did other stuff, but Makoto was 100% sure that he'd probably just killed everyone's libido forever.

Haruka had that look on his face, that "mom just caught me masturbating" look. Rin's expression was even worse -- he was the girl found at her boyfriend's house, only they were both boys, and in Haruka's tub. Makoto was shocked that Haruka even let such things go on in his tub, let alone in water in general...

"I'll...be outside," Makoto said, and as he turned he wasn't sure whether he actually meant to stay.

"We'll be along in just a moment," Haruka said calmly, and from the wet, sticky sounds of it, he was extracting Rin from whatever had just been going on in the tub.

Outside, the cool air helped. Makoto leaned the back of his head against Haruka's house door and huffed out his breath, watching the air catch it and turn it to steam. He stared at the cloud blankly, and when it dissipated, someone was walking toward him up the steps. Tall (even taller than Makoto, at least by a little), and vastly unamused, although the serious lines of Sousuke's mouth turned up a tiny bit when he saw Makoto.

"Why are you outside?" Sousuke asked, coming to a halt before Makoto, hands shoved deep in his pockets.

Makoto blushed the tiniest bit, mostly because of what happened the other day, but he fought it off. Not every curious guy was gay, and Makoto wasn't sure what he'd be able to offer a gay guy even if Sousuke was. After all, Makoto wasn't adorable with the roundest bottom in the world like Haruka or Nagisa, or so well-defined that even boys were staring at his chest, like Rin.

"Hello?" Sousuke waved his hand into the puff of steam in front of Makoto's face. "Are they here?"

"S-sexiled," Makoto said faintly, shaking his head. "They were...busy when I went in there."

Sousuke shut his eyes for a moment, and then chuckled, shaking his head. "I hope Rin was the groom."

"Um..." Makoto replied, casting his gaze to the ground.

"Oh. Oh, Rin."

Just as they met each other's eyes again, Haruka's door fell back from Makoto's head and he flailed a moment for balance. Haruka grabbed him and set him upright as he stepped out of the door. Rin followed, looking about as guilty as he could possibly look, while Haruka looked exactly the same as he always did.

"I hear you two were busy," Sousuke grunted at Rin, ignoring Haruka for the moment.

"Makoto told, eh?" Rin responded, rubbing an embarrassed hand through his hair. "Well, I mean... I miscalculated the time."

"Idiot," Sousuke said, thwapping the side of Rin's head.

"Hey! You would be doing exactly the same thing, if you had a chance..."

"Maybe," Sousuke responded, looking back at Haruka and Makoto with an unreadable expression.

Haruka cast a mildly reproachful glance at Makoto, to which Makoto bit his lip and shrugged, and Haruka rolled his eyes.

"...Did those two just have an entire conversation without words?"

"What? Oh, yeah. They're like an old married couple," Rin snorted, falling into step beside Sousuke as they headed down toward the station. 

Makoto had heard that before, so he just laughed. "Or brothers, perhaps. We did grow up together."

"You two did make me worry for a while," Rin muttered, almost to himself.

"We did?" Makoto was about to ask more when he heard a telltale meow coming from his right. Ah, his little friend, all grown up now. He smiled and knelt, pausing everyone's progress, teasing out the cat with a proffered hand. "I can't stay and play with you today," he said softly as the cat rubbed up against his fingers. "We're a little busy. But I'll put out some food later, okay?"

The cat wound around him, rubbing and purring, and Makoto couldn't help it. He picked up the cat and gave it a big cuddle. Then he turned his head and realized that three boys were staring at him, even Sousuke, with an expression even more unreadable than before... Oh right, he was making them late.

"Sorry," Makoto said, putting down the cat with a final pat on the back.

Rin and Sousuke turned again, and Makoto almost heard Sousuke muttering something.

"I know," Rin replied, "Totally oblivious, too. I feel sorry for you."

"Eh?" Makoto felt lost, but Haruka glanced sideways at him. 

"They're sharing a private joke like we do."

Sousuke turned to look back at Makoto, and (not that Makoto was watching for it) he could've sworn that Sousuke's cheeks were the tiniest bit flushed.

~

 

They were all exhilarated on the way back from the event. They'd gone to a college swimming tournament, invited by one of the men who'd scouted Rin. The powerful college bodies, the insane times, the furious pace, every part of it made Makoto's heart beat with a fierce thrill. He stared out at the bay as the train pulled toward the station, thinking about the future...swimming...everything.

"You coming over tonight?" Haruka asked Makoto.

"Shouldn't you be asking Rin that question?" Sousuke muttered, staring out the train window too. They were all lost in thought, but Haruka's question pulled them out of it.

"Rin was over last night," Haruka replied. "Why do you ask, Yamazaki?"

That was the most confrontational Makoto had heard Haruka in a while, and he laughed a little, wondering why this strange tension always flared up around those two. Weren't they all swimmers together? 

"Ah, sure, if you don't mind me feeding the cat first," Makoto replied to cut the tension.

"I have another change of clothing," Rin said unexpectedly, "And it is Saturday night."

"Then..." Haruka glanced at Makoto, and Makoto saw in a second that he'd been ditched. 

Makoto gave a slightly embarrassed smile in return, and Haruka replied silently with a relieved look, lowering his lashes. _I owe you, Makoto._ \-- _Yes you do, Haruka._

There it was, the downside to the whole dating thing. On the upside, Haruka was incredibly happy. It was true that occasionally he'd felt left out, but he usually had Nagisa or Rei or his siblings around to keep him occupied. He'd rarely been third-wheeled quite so badly as this.

...And then a hand fell onto his shoulder. "Do you live near Nanase? I've never explored this part of town before, and I'm hungry. Wanna get some food?"

Haruka scowled at Sousuke, opening his mouth as if to say _Hell no_ on Makoto's behalf, but Makoto was already smiling. He felt that inner glow of happiness that only arose when someone made an unexpectedly friendly gesture; Makoto could tell that Sousuke was saving him from an awkward situation out of the kindness of his heart.

"I'd like that," Makoto said, glowing up at Sousuke, only to hear Haruka click his tongue in irritation. He turned his head to quirk an eyebrow at Haruka, only to notice Rin glowering at Haruka too.

Haruka ignored Rin and met Makoto's eyes, giving him the look that meant, _don't put yourself in danger._

 _What danger?_ Makoto telegraphed back. _I don't get it!_

Haruka's only reply was a facepalm, but by then they had to disembark. All four of them ended up on the platform.

"Dinner is this way, so we'll see you later," Makoto said as cheerfully as he could while Haruka and Rin traded grimaces right in front of him. Seriously, what the heck was going on? Hadn't Haruka just ditched _him_?

Sousuke smiled and reached down to grip Makoto's wrist.

_Eh?_

"We'll see you two tomorrow."

_EH?_

"Are you spending the night with me?" Makoto asked, feeling a little surprised.

"Yep," Sousuke replied, and without looking at him, led him off toward the curved street in front of the bay.

Once again Sousuke was changing Makoto's pace, but it didn't feel entirely bad.

As they walked, Makoto let out the deep sigh that he'd felt lingering inside of him all day long. Glancing backward, he saw Haruka and Rin still arguing on the station platform, and laughed as he shook his head.

"It's either fighting or er. Something else. With those two." Sousuke's expression was entirely commiserating, and Makoto smiled at him again. "Thank you for saving me, tonight."

"That's not why I asked you to dinner," Sousuke said, his eyes sliding sideways with a smile of his own.

"Well, I know, but ... it was still good of you!"

Makoto couldn't figure out why Sousuke laughed, but it was still a nice laugh, a deep chuckle that made his eyes crinkle upward and teeth glow in the street lights.

"I still feel so energetic from that match, though. After we eat, we should do something. Ever try bowling?" Makoto asked, wracking his brain for things that they could do in his quiet part of town.

"No. But how about basketball?"

"Ah -- yeah, great idea! I can feed the cat, you can put your stuff at my house, and we can pick up my basketball too."

"I don't have any clothes with me, do you mind if I borrow something to sleep in?"

Makoto sized him up. "I...think my clothes will fit you. I've never met anyone the same size as me, honestly."

Sousuke stopped short and stepped close to him, looking down at Makoto's torso. "Hm. It's tough to compare even, isn't it? You're a little shorter, but we've got a similar build."

Makoto looked up to respond, but his words suddenly died on his lips. Sousuke was _looking_ at him from under those heavy-lidded eyes, assessing, weighing... smiling?

"It's kind of nice. I bet if we were in basketball, we'd always be surrounded by people our size."

"Ah, true! I was on a team in middle-school for a while, actually..." Makoto replied. Was it just him, or did Sousuke almost look regretful for a second? They started chatting about old times, and before long, got to the restaurant.

Dinner was actually nice. Sousuke didn't do the silent communication thing like Haruka, or the far-too-chatty thing like...some of Makoto's other friends, but he kept an even pace. They spoke of swimming, of course, and after a while, of the years that Rin was in Australia.

"He left me before he left you guys, you know," Sousuke said, sitting back from a demolished bowl of katsudon.

"Oh yeah?" Makoto slurped up the rest of an udon noodle, almost done himself.

"Out of the blue, in the middle of elementary, he said he had some people he wanted to swim with. Then, just like that, he transfered to Iwatobi."

Makoto winced a little at the thought. It was cold of Rin to leave behind such a good friend, but it reminded him of something too. "I'd apologize on his behalf, but he did the same to us. Found another way to get to his dream, and tried it out. I've been angry at him for that -- mostly because it hurt Haru a lot more than it hurt me -- but I got over it. I realized that he's simply the bravest kid that I know, never holding back from anything he wants even if it's hard to achieve."

"He missed you guys, though." The hurt was veiled in Sousuke's eyes, but it was there, and Makoto gave in to his urge. He touched Sousuke's sleeve lightly, causing those eyes to blink at him in surprise.

"He missed _you_ , you know. He described you to us, once. That you two were so close it was like you were the same person. I...during those years, I had a crisis too. I thought I was getting too close to Haru, so close that I couldn't figure out where Haru's personality ended. It took...It took a lot of things before I snapped out of it. But. Couldn't Rin's decision to move to Iwatobi have as much to do with wanting to be a better friend to you, too?"

"I don't follow."

Makoto glanced down, firming his grip on Sousuke's sleeve. It felt so incredibly important to be talking to him, just then, with all this history between them, that he didn't even question his own desire to touch Sousuke for emphasis.

"I needed space from Haru for a while in middle-school to find out the difference between us, to get back those boundaries and become myself again. I think...I think Rin might've been doing the same. So that you and he could be best of friends again, just like I am with Haru."

Sousuke stared at him, eyes wide, face suddenly so open that Makoto could actually read the emotion within. It looked like a lot of things were clicking into place in Sousuke's head, and Makoto slid his fingers down to find the skin of Sousuke's wrist, gathering it up into his warm hand.

"If you talked to him about it, I'm pretty sure he'd tell you that you're still important to him, too. He's been glowing with happiness since you returned to Iwatobi."

"Just. Just stop," Sousuke said, covering his face with his hand and holding it there for a long moment. 

Makoto stilled his touch, just waiting, wondering whether he'd lit something on fire that was maybe a bigger pile of dry tinder than he was expecting. 

"You. You know all of this about us, but you don't know anything about your impact on everyone else, do you?" Sousuke took the hand away from his face, and Makoto saw with surprise that Sousuke's cheeks were burning red. "Tachibana -- no. Makoto. You..."

Sousuke's fingers curled into fists, and Makoto was worried that he'd be punched in the face and never be able to return to that restaurant again out of mortification. But just in time, the server stepped forward, and Sousuke unexpectedly paid for them both and dragged Makoto out the door by his wrist.

"I...I think I'm sorry? Not that I can figure out what you're thinking," Makoto said. "Did I say too much, Yama... Sousuke?"

They were nearly alone on the quiet street, standing in the darkness at the edge of a street lamp. Sousuke still had him by the wrist, but in another tug they were up close again, as if Sousuke was measuring their bodies a second time.

"What is it?"

"Makoto. If you don't stop me, I'm going to kiss you again."

Makoto felt so. Bewildered. "What? I'm not cute at all, and by the way, why did you kiss me at the booth anyway, Sou --"

Makoto's lips were stopped by firm warm ones, and Sousuke's arms pulled him close, tilting his head back with a gentle tug to his hair to account for the scant few centimeters of height difference between them. The kiss made Makoto feel totally awake and alive -- as if Sousuke's lips had flipped on a switch he hadn't even known was off. It was different from the soft pressure of lips at the kissing booth. This kiss had _purpose_.

Makoto didn't realize he was making low moaning noises until he heard himself, and then he pulled back, completely embarrassed.

"Crap," Sousuke muttered, eyes so very gentle as he looked down at Makoto that he had to swallow hard. "I really -- I really like you."

"Oh," Makoto responded faintly, hearing his heartbeat swell to such a pitch that it drowned out anything else Sousuke might have had to say. "Uh."

"No, just..." And Sousuke pulled him forward and kissed him again. This time it was deeper and wetter, and Makoto's fingers fisted into the fabric of Sousuke's jacket. It was impossible to think that all this time, Makoto had wanted, longed for, needed _this?_ But after a long, sweet moment, Makoto pulled away.

"Um. Come home with me now? I'm living in fear that the old lady who runs the conbini across the street is going to call my mother," Makoto said, inches from Sousuke's face, breathing as if he'd been running.

"You still want me to sleep over? What if I can't control myself?" There it was again, Sousuke's smile, beaming down at Makoto and collecting all the light on the street.

"I'm pretty sure I could take you, Sousuke," Makoto said, laughing at his own words. "But you'll have to calm down. There are some important people for you to meet before we go play basketball."

"You're still thinking of basketball." Sousuke closed his eyes again, and then he laughed, passing his hand across his face. "Rin warned me about you. I should've listened."

"Warned...?"

"Don't worry about it. Let's go, Tachibana Makoto. Introduce me to your family, and we'll go play basketball."


	3. The train ride of shame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sousuke and Rin head home after a night out. Stories are shared, fists are bumped.

Sousuke had his headphones on and his hands jammed deep into his pockets when he hit the station. His eyes were down and his mind far, far away, somewhere between last night and this morning. It took a moment before he registered that the trainers in front of him looked familiar.

"Ah," Sousuke said, looking up at someone who was also heading back to Samezuka, headphones on, hands deep in his pockets, and mind far, far away.

"Ah," said Rin. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah," Sousuke replied, not even bothering to hide his grin.

Rin raised his fist and Sousuke met it. "I can't believe you already made a move, you --" reaching out with his foot, Rin drove it into the ticklish spot behind Sousuke's knee.

"Oy oy -- quit that," Sousuke said, laughing. "Makoto left himself wide open, and I took the opportunity."

"'Makoto' eh? On that level already? What -- did you confess or something?" Rin asked, teeth glinting sharply as he glanced at Sousuke sideways.

The train pulled up and allowed Sousuke a moment to get his blush under control. "Maybe I did, but it's not your business," he replied, but couldn't help the smug expression on his face.

"I seriously can't believe you. You've only known him for a little while and you've shaken his world more than it's been moved in the past seventeen years," Rin said, shaking his head. "Haru and I had a fight about that, last night. He said you were working too fast for Makoto and that the guy probably had no idea what to think."

Sousuke looked out the window, gripping a handrail as the train started. "So you two fought about Makoto yesterday? Or ... was it actually about me?"

Rin dropped his gaze, shrugging just a little. "Eh. I think Haru forgot that when you're best friends with someone, you have to give them space to grow...kinda like us, I guess. I reminded him about that. Then we...made up, a lot, and...the rest of the night was just fine." Rin's smile became toothy again. "Finished what we started yesterday morning."

"I didn't need to know that!" Sousuke smacked Rin's shoulder before they dissolved into mutual snickers.

"But how did your night go?" Rin elbowed him, his expression sly. "Did you really shake his world?"

"Well..."

~

As soon as Sousuke set foot into the Tachibana household, he realized how Makoto had become who he was. Two adorable tykes, a boy and a girl, immediately attached themselves to Makoto's legs, peeking out at Sousuke like he was from another planet.

"This isn't Haruka-niisan, or Butterfly-niisan, or Nagisa-niichan..."

"This is Yamazaki Sousuke, and he's a...friend of mine." Makoto's voice was just a touch uncertain as he ushered Sousuke in, and the little shy sideways glance melted Sousuke even more than he already had been.

"You can call me Sou-niisan," Sousuke said, dropping to his heels to get on their level. He shot them his goofiest grin, because he knew that kids tended to find his height and expression a little scary. "I went to elementary school with Rin-niisan and Gou-neesan. It couldn't be -- that you two are twins?"

There was a moment of silence as they considered him, and then Ren stepped forward first. "Yeah, we're twins. You're tall like oniichan. Can you dangle me upside down?"

"Ren! Don't ask such things of guests," Makoto said, shaking his head, but Sousuke stood, nodding.

"Let's go to the yard where we won't break anything," Sousuke said, and immediately turned, leading the way with two little kids marching happily after him.

When Sousuke glanced back over his shoulder to reassure Makoto that everything would be okay, he saw Makoto staring at him with the happiest expression he'd seen yet... and any doubts that Sousuke might have had about the quickness of his confession dissolved into the feeling that if he didn't hang on tight, that happy smile might be directed toward someone else.

Sousuke realized that he had it in him to do whatever it took to keep that from happening.

 _Whatever it took_ turned out to be dangling first one, then the other of the twins upside down over the grass, and then letting them ride on his shoulders. This lasted until Tachibana-okaasan came out and scolded each of the twins for using Sousuke mercilessly for his height and strength, and then she bowed a laughing hello.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm actually relieved that Makoto has friends outside of the ones we've known for years. It made me worried that he was actually a shy boy."

"It's my pleasure to know him. He's already a good friend to me," Sousuke said very properly, meeting Makoto's eyes with the tiniest hint of amusement in his expression. After all, his intentions were not entirely the purest.

Discussing their sleeping arrangements for the night was a noisy affair. When Tachibana-okaasan said she'd put an extra futon into Makoto's room, both Ran and Ren shouted their disapproval. They demanded that since it was a sleepover with someone new, they should all sleep together on futons in the living room.

Before Makoto could be at all flustered, Sousuke agreed. He met Makoto's eyes and tried to telegraph that everything was fine -- he was no Haruka about unspoken communication, but Makoto must've understood, because he gave him that smile again. Sousuke couldn't help but feel grateful for this strong fortress of family surrounding Makoto. Between these guys and Haruka, no wonder the guy remained so amazingly sweet.

After they'd worked out sleeping arrangements, Makoto firmly insisted that he and Sou-niisan have some grown-up time out on the basketball court, and they escaped together with Makoto's ball under his arm.

"Well. You survived the twins," Makoto said with a laugh.

"They were pretty cute. Reminds me of when I met you in elementary school, swimming against me."

"Ah -- THAT'S where I've met you. It's been bothering me for a few days now. We met at a Sano Elementary competition. Right?"

"A few days?" Sousuke asked, his voice just a hint teasing. "Ever since I kissed you, maybe?"

Makoto slid his hands into his hair, his blush visible even in the streetlights. "Ah, you caught me. Yes, that...might have been on my mind."

"It might have been on mine, too," Sousuke said, and it took all his strength to keep from reaching sideways to yank Makoto against him again. Now was not the right time, even if he was literally aching for it.

"S-so, we're on the court," Makoto said, hiding his expression as he dropped his ball in an automatic dribble.

Sousuke leaned over and kissed Makoto's blushing cheek, hearing the intake of Makoto's breath, feeling the warmth of the soft skin beneath his lips.

Makoto's face turned toward him, expression startled, but Sousuke grinned and took off his jacket, heading into the court. "One-on-one!" He said, falling into a defensive stance. "First ten baskets wins!"

~

"So you played basketball and then slept with two little kids," Rin chuckled. "That sounds exactly like I would've expected. I guess you don't have the luck of a boyfriend who lives alone."

"I do have the luck of a roommate who goes to visit a boyfriend who lives alone..." Sousuke said thoughtfully, his voice trailing off...

"OY! If you two Do It on the top bunk, it's going to break the bed! Seriously, two big guys like you up there -- not only that, but everyone's gonna hear it! Geez..." Rin said, forehead furrowing as he considered the issue.

Sousuke just shrugged. "We'll Do It on the bottom bunk, then," he said. "It's not like you'll be there to stop us."

"WHAT?"

Sousuke grinned, enduring the freak-out that he'd known would happen. Rin was so easy to needle; it was good to know that he still knew all the right buttons to push.

"But that wasn't your entire night, was it?" Rin finally asked, after his grumbling died down.

"Ah...basketball...ended with some making out, it's true."

~

Makoto was surprisingly fierce in a competition. If Sousuke had initially underestimated Makoto's drive to win, he put that thought to rest after Makoto took the first three baskets. Makoto was fit and tireless and seemed to love a good, close game as much as Sousuke did. They shouldered each other so hard that Sousuke was pretty sure he had a few bruises, but Makoto didn't even pause to apologize. Apparently apologies were reserved for outside the basketball court... Sousuke ended up winning, ten baskets to eight, but it was worth it to see the flash of annoyance in Makoto's eyes.

This was yet another new expression, and Sousuke wanted to see every single one.

"I'll get you next time," Makoto said. "Your hook is great. I need to practice."

"Concentrate on swimming," Sousuke chuckled. "We'll keep this informal."

"I'll beat you anyway though," Makoto promised, huffing out his breath, and he looked so cute that Sousuke automatically reached out to grip the waistband of Makoto's pants, yanking his sweaty body close. "Sousuke -- any reason you play with your left hand instead of your right?"

The innocent question sank deep into Sousuke's mind and lingered, but he wasn't ready to face it yet -- not for Makoto, or anyone. "You'll get cold like this, put your coat back on," Sousuke said instead, reaching down to snag Makoto's coat and drape it around his shoulders. Then he slid his hands around Makoto's waist and did what he'd been thinking about since he put the bandage on Makoto's back. He found the skin under Makoto's shirt with his thumbs and drew a slow caress just above his waistband.

"I see that your scrape is better," Sousuke murmured into Makoto's ear.

Makoto shivered immediately, dropping his chin to hide his expression. "Y-yeah."

Sousuke ran his fingertips over the warm and slightly sweaty skin of Makoto's lower back, watching his expression, letting every slow touch linger. "You heal pretty quickly."

"...Sousuke..." Makoto's eyes closed and his mouth opened. God, that was sexy.

"Mhmm."

"I...am going to be unable to walk if you keep doing that." Makoto's voice was so embarrassed that Sousuke couldn't help it. He ran his thumb up and down each bump of Makoto's spine to his mid-back, watching as Makoto tilted his head back to expose his neck, giving an entirely involuntary moan.

The noise went straight to Sousuke's groin.

"Then kiss me instead," Sousuke said huskily, bending to run his lips along the underside of that finely-drawn chin.

"You," Makoto said just as huskily after a rather long exploration of each other's mouths. "I'm sorry, you make me..."

"Me too. Look, see." Sousuke didn't bother to hide how his body was feeling, pulling Makoto closer so that he could _tell_ , sliding his lips to Makoto's neck again. Makoto's arms went around him, and he realized how amazing it was that they were of a size. He was holding someone solid, someone who could push him down if Sousuke wanted, someone who could best him in a wrestling match, maybe every other time.

Makoto made more of those low, breathless noises, the ones that had completely hooked Sousuke a few hours earlier. But this time, hip to hip, Sousuke could feel just how excited it was making Makoto. Sousuke realized that they were of a size _there_ too, and his breath went rough when he thought about it. That feeling was pure and unadulterated lust, though, and what he had with Makoto was something else, so he tightened his resolve and pulled his hips back.

Makoto, that soul of purity, seemed to take that pulling-back as a given. Someday, Sousuke promised himself, he'd make Makoto shiver from that knowledge.

"This up here," Makoto said after a moment, breathlessly, fingers climbing Sousuke's arm to map out the indentations of biceps over his shirt. "I swim as much as you do but you are massive."

"If I said something cheesy like 'all the better to hold you with,' would you say you liked me?"

Makoto laughed, dropping his face to rest against Sousuke's shoulder.

So. Cute.

"...I..." Makoto's voice faltered against his shirt.

"No, it's okay. I sprang it on you. I'll give you two more dates to succumb, and THEN I'll whip out the cheesy lines."

Makoto's grip on Sousuke's shirt tightened, and he raised his smiling face again to press their lips together...

~

"First base, then. First and a half."

Sousuke shrugged. "Only if you don't consider someone's entire back an erogenous zone."

"Whoa. I should've known, given that it's Makoto," Rin said, quirking an eyebrow at him. "For Haru, it's his --"

"I seriously don't need you to tell me," Sousuke said, looking away.

"You two need to sort out your shit already," Rin said, stopping his steps on the way toward the dorm doorway. "It's not fair to me, or to Makoto, for you to keep treating Haru like he stole my friendship away from you."

"That's not how I --" Huh, wait. Sousuke dropped his head, really thinking about it. ...Okay, fine. Rin hit the nail on the head. "Okay. I will, I promise. Sometime soon."

But first, Sousuke had to take Makoto's advice and sort out his shit with Rin.

"Hey. Wanna take a run with me, now that we're back?"

"Train, with you?" Rin perked up, his face glowing just a little. "Yeah! Let's put our stuff down and go!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And then episode four happens.
> 
> Why basketball, you might ask. Well. I kind of also love Kuroko no Basket, and Sousuke and Hyuuga totally share a voice actor...


	4. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto learns what it means to flirt and fight. Warning: Makoto and Haruka have a tense moment. Also, more High Speed 2, including mention of Makkou the dog and Nao-senpai.

Makoto woke up Sunday morning because a stray ray of light fell across his face. Light? Ah, right, he wasn't in his bedroom. Instead he was in the middle of the living room on a futon, and next to him were three warm bodies. Makoto felt someone nestled against him and smiled, looking down. Curled into a tidy ball against his stomach was Ran, her hair braided neatly and tucked beneath her head. Makoto pulled the blanket a little more firmly around her and glanced over to see how Sousuke had faired.

Sousuke was already awake and watching him. His eyes were just a little red-veined, and Makoto bit his lip. He saw Sousuke's situation -- Ren was upside down, and there was very definitely a foot sticking out from the covers, planted right beneath Sousuke's chin. The other guy didn't look all that annoyed about it, though, just resigned. He gave Makoto the tiniest sleepy smile, and Makoto could tell that he was holding as still as he could so as not to wake the little boy.

"They both sleep really deeply," Makoto said quietly. "Come to my room for a bit? You can nap there if you want."

Sousuke nodded, and Makoto watched as he very gently extracted his large body from under the small one, pulling the covers up to give Ren some air, and then tucking it down around his feet.

In Makoto's room, Sousuke gave an enormous stretch and sighed. It made Makoto's t-shirt (which was the tiniest bit too snug around Sousuke's body) ride up and expose his stomach. "I used to sleep just like that when I was a kid," Sousuke chuckled. "It's like I got my just desserts. They're adorable, the twins. But then again, I like your whole family."

"Withhold judgement until you see them throw tantrums," Makoto said, laughing. He sat on the edge of his bed and noticed that Sousuke looked awake, maybe too awake to nap. "Do you want to sleep a little more?"

Sousuke just _looked_ at him, and Makoto realized that he'd invited a guy who liked him into his room while everyone else in the house was still asleep... He felt his face turn red, and stared at the floor. "Oh."

The bed creaked from Sousuke's weight as he sat down beside Makoto, shoulder bumping shoulder. "Don't be so worried," Sousuke's voice was affectionate. "I was actually just thinking that maybe we could go for a run before I go home. I don't normally run, but Rin's been doing it lately, and I kind of want to up my game."

Makoto was actually planning to do his normal evening run with Haruka later that day, but it struck him that for the first time, maybe he could ditch Haruka for a change. He wasn't the kind of person who enjoyed payback, but maybe just once it might be justified... On the other hand, here was Sousuke sitting on his bed in his room, and Makoto felt just a little restless.

He put his arm around Sousuke's back, hesitantly, and then leaned over to kiss Sousuke's cheek. Makoto really liked the way Sousuke's eyes turned down at the corner, giving him the look of a sleepy marine animal, or maybe a sloth. He kissed the corner of Sousuke's eye, and then (just to see what it was like) tucked his nose into the dark hair, inhaling Sousuke's scent. Clean with the smell of Makoto's shampoo, as if Makoto had marked him. The thought curled in Makoto's stomach, giving him the warmest sensation...

When Makoto pulled back, Sousuke's eyes were tightly shut, and his hands were clenched into Makoto's blankets.

"Was that -- okay?" Makoto asked uncertainly, only to hear Sousuke give a low chuckle.

"More than okay. I was just trying to spare you my morning breath, but I think I'll go brush my teeth."

They went together, and Makoto thought to himself that it was crowded at the bathroom sink with two large guys trying to jockey for position. When Haruka came over, the body next to his at the sink was much smaller. Makoto kept bumping up against Sousuke, to the point where they both started laughing.

"You're much larger than Rin," Sousuke commented, switching toothbrush hands and wrapping his free arm around Makoto's waist. They both fit a little better in the small room that way.

"I was just thinking something like that too..."

Back in Makoto's room, he glanced at the clock. It was early, but his mother would probably be stirring shortly to make everyone breakfast. "I guess we'd better go run if --"

"Makoto. I brushed my teeth..." Sousuke turned, neatly pinning Makoto against the door to his room, fingers finding Makoto's waist again.

"I like --"

"Yes?"

"...How you look in my shirt," Makoto admitted, dropping his face (already burning) to Sousuke's shoulder. 

"It feels a little tight." Sousuke gripped Makoto's hip with a hand, pulling them flush, touching his lips to Makoto's forehead. "I hope I don't rip it."

"My shorts fit you just fine, though," Makoto murmured, and returned the favor by running his hands down Sousuke's hips. Massive and built -- not an inch of spare fat, just muscle, all the way down. Sousuke's glutes were hard and rounded and Makoto couldn't help digging his fingertips in. God. "I have the urge to see my shirt OFF you though."

"Makoto." When he looked up, Sousuke met his mouth, and the sleepy little kisses were suddenly burnt away by this one. It was one thing to kiss Sousuke in the dark, outside, when the world felt entirely different from Makoto's daily routine. But this, kissing Sousuke in his own bedroom in the morning... Makoto felt a warm ache in his gut, and his heartbeat quickened. He opened his mouth to it, opening himself up to the sensation of Sousuke awash in all of Makoto's usual household scents, his toothpaste and soap. It made every part of Makoto want to claim Sousuke more, a deep urge that he'd never felt before.

But Sousuke pulled back from the kiss with a sigh, resting an arm on the door above Makoto's shoulder, letting space grow between their bodies again.

"I won't be able to run in a second, if we keep this up."

Makoto bit his lip, closing his eyes. Did they have to run...? Then he heard the sound of rustling from his parent's room and let his head hit the door.

"I want to feel you more." Makoto admitted it with a red face.

"Should I really put out for you before you say you like me, though?"

Eek. "Sousuke, I --"

Mischief glowed in Sousuke's eyes, and he leaned in to kiss Makoto again. "Actually, I've already answered that for myself. Come, let's run."

"You're kind of mean, aren't you?" Makoto said, passing a hand over his face to calm his blush while Sousuke sat to put on socks.

"You need a little more of that in your life, I think."

Makoto thought of Haruka and Rin, and sighed. So this is what it was like. It wasn't bad. It stung. It got his blood flowing, and Sousuke on his mind, filling it, all of it.

"You Samezuka guys are terrible."

Sousuke just laughed.

~

Much later, Haruka showed up at Makoto's door with a frown on his face. "You weren't at the steps waiting," he said.

"Ah -- I forgot to text you. Sorry, I got sucked into house cleaning, and my mom wouldn't let up. But...I already ran today."

Haruka just stared at him, eyes shaped like little triangles, lips a flat line. "Makoto. You went running with Yamazaki."

"I -- yeah." Makoto couldn't help the little blush. As much as it felt like schadenfreude, it wasn't in his nature to let Haruka feel this way for too long. "I'm sorry. But didn't you go running with Rin?"

Haruka stepped inside. "No, we...didn't have time. Have you remembered yet? Who Yamazaki is?"

"Eh? We swam against him, right?"

"Let's go to your room and talk. You can help me stretch, since you're ditching our usual date."

"Haru --" Makoto followed after him, sighing. Haruka didn't talk again until he was in a forward stretch on Makoto's bedroom floor, with Makoto's hands gently pressing him down from behind.

Haruka's question, though. Remember...Sousuke...

"Remember middle school, before I quit the swim team? We went to a few meets. This was back when I still had Makkou..."

Makkou. The dog that was kind of named after Makoto. Those years. Makoto had blocked them out of his memory as much as possible, probably due to all of the trauma that happened afterwards, when Haruka quit the swim team.

"Kind of?" Makoto said cautiously. It wasn't like Haruka to bring up the past at all, so he waited.

"Yamazaki and I. You broke up something that was almost a fight between us, once. Maybe twice. He insulted Nao-senpai, our coach from middle-school, the one that you adored so much. He did it because of strange reasons, almost as though he was telling me I wasn't good enough for Rin, or working hard enough."

Makoto's face turned pink. Memories of his first crush came washing over him -- Nao-senpai, the one who'd driven him to focus on backstroke. Makoto subconsciously pushed harder on Haruka's shoulders.

Haruka hissed.

"Oops," Makoto eased up his pressure. "But yes. I'm remembering," he said shortly.

"Be careful. Of him, of Yamazaki. He's got darkness in him. I can feel it when I'm in the water. There's something going on, there. Maybe it's about Rin still, or maybe it's just between Yamazaki and me."

Makoto sat back, dropping his hands, feeling a twist of pain in his own chest. "He confessed to me. Sousuke did. We..."

Haruka turned, eyes wide, looking at Makoto. He stared at Makoto's face, taking in the slightly pink cheeks, the troubled expression. Then he leaned forward, and Makoto felt Haruka's fingers on his chin, tilting his face up.

"Your neck, Makoto. What else did he --"

Makoto pulled away, tucking his chin back down. "Nothing. Let's go for a run after all." Turning away to cover a harder blush, Makoto got ready for his second run of the day, remembering the first one vividly. The two of them had kept an even pace. It felt a bit like being part of a team of large horses -- clydesdales, maybe -- running shoulder-to-shoulder with Sousuke. It had felt so _good_.

Makoto and Haruka ran their usual course along the curve of the bay, one side of it, to the other, and back. They paused at the pier to catch their breath, and Makoto stared out into the water.

Another memory returned, this one stranger, more bittersweet.

"Haru. Remember when you saved Ran and Ren from floating away on the raft? It made me wonder if I could live without you."

Haruka stepped next to Makoto, also staring out at the water. His expression was blank as usual, but his eyes were just a little sad. "Do you need me to say that to you again? That you are part of my life, and you never have to worry about it?"

"I think the whole point of that year was that we got space from each other. Haru...you're part of my life too. And just as much as I yelled at Rin for hurting you last year --"

"That wasn't yelling."

"It was for _me_. Anyway. I understand why you want to protect me, but --"

"Makoto. If Yamazaki messes with you in the way he messed with me, I'll --"

"Haru! So far he's done nothing but make me feel really, really good."

Makoto couldn't remember how long it had been since they'd had their version of a fight, which consisted of quietly saying things that disagreed with each other. They looked in opposite directions down the Iwatobi shore, Makoto with his hands balled up into fists, Haruka with a carefully expressionless face.

"I just want to know that he's worked out his issues before he goes anywhere near you," Haruka said quietly. "Besides. He says he's been scouted. How long will you two have to be together, before he goes back to --"

"HARU!" Makoto shouted, feeling fiercer than he'd felt in a long time. He took a deep breath to calm down, struggling with himself for a moment. "Don't. Don't kill something before it's even begun. I haven't even had a chance to think about it, let alone know how I feel. Besides. Do YOU know what you want to do in the future? I DO. And it might not even be in Iwatobi."

Without waiting for Haruka to answer him, Makoto turned, letting his legs carry him away from there. All of his own doubts rose up in his mind -- and he admitted that perhaps the one he'd been yelling at was not Haruka at all, but himself.

~

There were two texts waiting for him when he got home. The first was from Haruka.

[Makoto. I'm sorry. I should not have said those things. What are you going to do in your future? I want to know.]

That one, Makoto wasn't prepared to talk about yet. He'd been delaying it anyway, ever since they'd filled out their future plan surveys in class. He knew Haruka had no idea about his future, but he... Makoto knew.

[We'll talk tomorrow. I'm sorry too, Haru.] Makoto texted back.

The second text made his heartbeat speed up.

[Tachibana Makoto. After joint practice next weekend, will you stay over? My roommate is conveniently gone.]

Makoto hesitated a long time before he replied, staring down at the text, wondering why his whole body (from his toes to his heart) responded with a resounding _yes_ before his brain was half done processing it.

His fingers typed a reply before he could really think about it, too. [Sure. I might even forget to bring clothes, so I can sleep in your tshirt.]

Blushing at his own ridiculously flirty text, Makoto hid his face as he hit send.

The answer came after a moment or two.

[I'm dead. You just killed me. Now I can't sleep.]

[Good night, Sousuke.]

Come to think of it, the shirt Sousuke had slept in was in Makoto's laundry. He fished it out, noticing that it was still a little damp from the sweat of their earlier run. Then he brought it to his nose... Oh, god.

The mingled scent of Sousuke and his own smell made Makoto tremble. He brought the shirt over to his bed and flopped down, covering his face with it. 

Then he realized that he was painfully, relentlessly, achingly hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so mean for ending this chapter right there.


	5. Sexting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No that's it, just sexting, with a side of roommate snark.

Makoto was exhausted, nothing else explained it. Had he fallen asleep at the wheel? Probably, but when he came to, his car was stopped at the side of the road, and a man in a blue uniform was rapping on his window. 

“Sir, pardon me, please get out of your vehicle.”

Makoto did, rubbing his face. His hand came away blackened as he stumbled to rest against the side of his car. What was it on his hand again? Ah, ash. He’d been fighting a fire all night long, no, more than all night. Maybe a full twenty-four hour shift of it, stuck there because other units were otherwise assigned. But now a police officer was in front of him looking stern and unforgiving, and Makoto had to do whatever he said.

“Are you drunk, sir? Please look at me. I’m Officer Yamazaki of the 35th squadron, in charge of vehicular safety. State your name, sir.”

“Tachibana...Makoto. Fire fighter.”

Makoto shifted, standing a little more upright, realizing that he and the officer were almost of a height. That was rare. The man was built, too, in all the best ways, and even in Makoto’s hazy state he could tell that the uniform fit Yamazaki to a T. It was tight across his chest, narrow in his hips, and when Yamazaki moved, things _flexed_. 

That expression...Makoto felt just a touch ashamed. It was almost as though the policeman was assessing him, eyeing him from head to toe, measuring every part of him against some sort of inner standard.

“Please walk a straight line for me.”

“I can’t. I’m exhausted. I just --”

“If you can’t, then I’ll have to search you for drugs.”

“As if I’d take drugs!” Makoto cried, but a second later, a firm hand had him turned to face his car, bent against it, Makoto’s wrists gripped behind his back. Then a voice purred into his ear.

“Tachibana Makoto…” The hand descended slowly down Makoto’s back, over the thin fabric of his t-shirt, down to his tailbone. “The fabric of your pants is too thick for me to feel you for drugs. I’ll have to ask that you take them down for me.”

“Do you really have to do that?” Makoto gasped, but he realized with another sinking sense of embarrassment that the touch (even if it was professional) was turning him on. He undid his pants and pushed them down around his thighs, keeping his underwear on. Tensing up, hiding his face against the cool metal of his car, he waited.

Makoto felt Yamazaki’s breath on the back of his neck as the other man drew away, and then heard the smallest rumble of noise from him. Then Makoto felt a hand, carefully cupping his rear, spreading him apart over the fabric of his underwear. A thumb ran down between his cheeks, pausing only when it found the soft indentation behind his balls…

“Almost, Sousuke,” Makoto whispered into the shirt over his face, feeling his erection thicken in his own hand. The shirt smelled so much of Sousuke that he didn’t need much of a fantasy to finish him off, but this would do. What would Officer Yamazaki do then? Would he take down Makoto’s underwear and slide his bare fingers against his skin? Would he maybe kneel and let his tongue follow his fingers? “Ohhhh...yes...please…” Makoto groaned. Almost -- almost --

The phone beside Makoto’s bed suddenly vibrated. Distracted, Makoto paused his hand and took the shirt off his face. Nobody usually texted him this late at night unless there was something wrong…

[Tachibana Makoto. I’m thinking of you tonight. Are you thinking of me?]

Oh...God… Feeling his face burn, Makoto's erection flagged, as though an invisible Sousuke had somehow caught him in the middle of his fantasy. Another text came before he could answer the first one.

[You’re taking a moment to reply. What could you be doing?]

[Yamazaki-kun… I was thinking about you too, actually.] Makoto replied, rubbing his burning face against the shirt.

[What happened to ‘Sousuke’? Thinking anything good?]

[Sousuke. Yes, but...I won’t tell you what. Too embarrassing.] Even that gave away too much, but Makoto felt that maybe Sousuke should know that yes, he was thinking of him, and yes, in _that_ way.

[This is sounding more and more intriguing. You’ll have to tell me, Makoto, or I’ll ask you in front of everyone at practice on Saturday.]

[No! Don’t do that. I was………..No I seriously can’t say it.]

[Were you thinking about me touching you, Makoto?]

Makoto couldn’t answer that one. He nodded, but of course Sousuke couldn’t see it. Another text came, though.

[Were you touching yourself while you thought of me touching you...Makoto?]

[...] Was all that Makoto could manage in his reply, and he pulled his sheets over his head, peeking at the phone with a burning face.

[Makoto… You seriously test me, you know? Now I want to put my hand into my shorts and think about you too. But you have to reply if you want me to…]

Oh God. As if Makoto could. But the thought of Sousuke lying there touching his beautiful body and thinking of him...Makoto was going to have to take that opportunity, or it would go away forever.

[...yes. i want that.]

The words looked tiny and shy even in text form, but Makoto shifted to his back again, feeling his erection wake back up. He hesitated, shifting his phone to his right hand, sliding his left hand down...his left hand wasn’t as good at this, but it would do.

[I’m doing it, Makoto. Are you?]

[yes]

[What were you thinking of, before?]

The cop scenario was way too ridiculous to share, but he had to be honest. [You were a policeman and had me pressed up against my car.]

There was a moment with no reply at all, and Makoto imagined how Sousuke must look, hand under his sheets, rubbing slowly. He wondered what Sousuke’s erection looked like, and the thought made him want to die, either from hotness or embarrassment, or both. Then…

[Makoto, you thought of me on top? I’m honored.]

...That text had Makoto’s breath catching in his throat. He wasn’t sure what to respond to it, but he was glad that Sousuke was on board. But he had to be honest here too...

[Sometimes I think of the other way too.]

[...Me too, Makoto. I think of us doing both parts, sometimes in the same night.]

Whoa. This was getting incredibly steamy fast, and Makoto threw his arm over his eyes. His hand sped up again, and he thought of the fantasy in reverse this time, Sousuke pressed against the car with Makoto kneeling to sink his teeth into that bare, hard-muscled bottom.

[Sousuke...I’m thinking about biting you now] Makoto typed, a little sloppily, because he was pretty sure that the second he thought of pushing inside Sousuke, he’d come.

[Biting me where?]

[all over you mostly your bottom.]

[i want it makoto, bite me there]

They were both texting sloppily now, and it heated Makoto up.

Knowing they were sharing a fantasy, Makoto shut his eyes and let the phone fall against the bed, thinking about how Sousuke would look with his legs spread, back arched before him, slowly taking Makoto into his body in one deep press. It would be so hot, and tight, and Sousuke would be all _his_...

Makoto clenched his fingers one last time and came, hard, feeling it tingle down to his toes and all the way up to his eyes. He drew a shuddering breath, thinking that he’d never come that way from his own hand before. Then he rested his hand in the mess on his stomach, letting the lassitude wash over his body before he realized that his phone was buzzing again.

[Rin just stepped back into the room and I had to stop.]

Makoto bit his lip, and then couldn’t help it. He started to laugh, imagining the scene. It was kind of hot in a way -- maybe Sousuke was shaking the bunk so hard that Rin could tell? Pressing his hand against his cheek to cool himself off, he reached for the tissues.

[He’s teasing me now, but I dropped a book on his head.]

That was so cute, though. Makoto curled sideways, cradling his phone, smiling into it. [I came. I thought of being inside you. Now I want you to be holding me, though.]

Another long silence from the other side of the line.

[You’re killing me. Rin just turned to yell at me and noticed that I was blushing. Me, blushing. Now I’m never going to hear the end of it.]

Makoto couldn’t stop smiling. [I cannot honestly say that I’m sorry] Makoto replied.

[You owe me when you stay over this weekend.]

[Owe you what?] This feeling was more and more playful, and Makoto wished they were in the same room, but maybe without Rin.

[I’ll think of something. It might take a while to come up with something good enough, but don’t worry, I will.]

[Sousuke, I --] Makoto started to type, and then realized that he was going to type something like _I like you, I like you so much too_ , when he stopped himself and sighed. No, it was rude to confess through text messages. Instead he typed, [I’m sleepy now, so I’m going to bed. I wish you were here with me.]

[I want that too, Makoto. I want you to wake up next to me, I want to see your smile in the morning. I said I think about you when I jerk off but even more than that I think about your smile.]

That last sentence read as if Sousuke typed it in a rush, sending it before he could think twice. That was a lot of romance right there, and made Makoto feel slightly silent inside. He wasn’t sure what to reply, but he smiled at his phone.

Then there was a pause, and another text came to him from a different number.

[What have you done to my roommate? You need to quit texting or we’ll never get rest. Did you turn him into a teenaged girl?]

Oh, Rin did NOT. Makoto stared at his phone with an uncharacteristically strong sense of annoyance, remembering the days when Haruka frowned down at endless text messages. Sometimes Haruka would ask Makoto what to respond to the utterly sappy things that Rin came up with, and boy, THAT had been interesting. Narrowing his eyes, Makoto sent Rin another text.

[I forgot to tell him that I wanted to see him floating naked in a pond full of cherry blossoms.]

The next text was from Sousuke, again.

[Rin just growled something like Goddamnit does Haru have to share everything with him, and threw his phone across the room.]

Makoto chuckled. [He won’t be teasing us about texting for a while, let’s just say that.]

[I’m impressed. Good night, Makoto. See you very soon.]

“I think I like you,” Makoto whispered to his phone, feeling his face heat up again.

But he typed [Good night] instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was this too soon? I felt it was time.


	6. Shining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto sees a sight he hasn't seen in a while.

"Nice, Haru-chan," Makoto said with a smile, reaching down toward the Samezuka pool to take Haruka's hand. They were there for joint practice, of course. Over in the other lane was Sousuke. They’d acknowledged each other with a few long glances, but Makoto was far too shy to say more than _hello_ in front of everyone, and Sousuke seemed more driven than usual about swimming. Makoto contented himself with watching Sousuke’s movements in between his practice laps, although it had garnered him a sharp elbow from Rin.

_“Your looks are embarrassing me,” Rin muttered._

_“Oh? I’d better get you used to it then,” Makoto replied with a laugh, running his fingers through his hair and turning a very appreciative gaze on Sousuke’s form as he dove into the water._

_“Just stop,” Rin said, shaking his head. “Who would’ve thought it of you?”_

Haruka looked up with just a hint of irritation. "Leave off the -chan already." He gripped Makoto’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled out of the pool. Standing together, Makoto felt awash with a certain amount of relief. It had been almost a week since their fight, but things felt more-or-less normal. He'd told Haruka about his plans for the future, and the conversation went over a little better than he'd expected. But Makoto had not pushed for Haruka to have a conversation with Sousuke, and hadn't had the heart to bring it up since.

Perhaps that would come in time, but for the moment, the two seemed to have an unspoken agreement to leave each other alone. 

"Your time was good too, Makoto." Haruka shifted away, reaching for his towel.

"Tachibana-san, Tachibana-san!" Momotarou popped up between them, both arms closing around Makoto's shoulders. This time, Makoto automatically braced himself for impact, widening his stance and holding Momotarou firm. No more falling onto the tile. "Your backstroke is AMAZING, Tachibana-san! Can you teach me to be better? I want to go up against you! Do you mind staying after practice today?"

Haruka took a step sideways, and then another, casting Makoto a look. _This is your sticky situation._

_Haru, don't leave me alone --_

_The pool calls._ A moment later Haruka lept back in, leaving Makoto behind with an expectant Mikoshiba hanging off of his arm.

"I'm staying over tonight anyway, so sure," Makoto agreed, although a little reluctantly. He actually wanted to spend as much time with Sousuke as he could, but he understood Momotarou's passion. Given how often Rin had assisted Rei, Makoto also felt he had a debt to repay for Iwatobi’s sake.

"You are? Awesome! Who are you staying with? Can I come hang out too --"

"Me, and no," Sousuke said, climbing up out of the lane. He shook the water off of his hair and stepped nearer, one hand rising to cup the joint of his right shoulder. "You need to learn to read the situation a little better, Momo."

"Situation?" Momotarou looked confused, and then glanced between Sousuke and Makoto enough times that it had Makoto blushing. "OHHHHH. Uh, okay. So you guys are working on special training or something?"

Sousuke laughed and reached out to ruffle Momotarou's hair, much to the other boy’s obvious confusion. Makoto bit his lip, glancing over at Sousuke. Ah, there it was, that gentle glow of warmth between them that had Makoto smiling before he knew it. Sousuke smiled in return, but his expression shifted to something just a little more intense. Ah, right. Makoto remembered that Sousuke seemed to like his smile, and tried to force it off his face so as not to distract him.

"I'm going to swim a bit longer with Momotarou to help his backstroke.” 

"I'll stay too." Sousuke's eyes crinkled just a bit more, and it struck Makoto that something had changed about him. Sousuke never felt unhappy, precisely, but now he had a lightness to him that Makoto hadn't seen before. What was it from? Makoto wondered if he'd talked to Rin, and if maybe they'd worked things out between them. 

"I'll swim a few more laps while I wait," Sousuke said, glancing back over his shoulder as he turned to mount the block.

"Sure." Makoto watched Sousuke dive, feeling a hazy glow sink down his spine as he saw the powerful form plow into the water. Later, maybe he'd get to touch that.

"Tachibana-san?" Momotarou's gold eyes glanced imploringly up at Makoto, and Makoto reluctantly tore his gaze away from Sousuke. 

"Go and swim a lap, Momotarou. I'll watch your form and see if I can suggest anything."

"Yes! Thank you, Tachibana-san!" With far more power than necessary, Momotarou ran toward the edge of the pool and hopped in, splashing everything in the process.

After a few moments of thoughtfully watching, Makoto noticed a few things that he marked for improvement. Even if his form was uncontrolled, Momotarou's backstroke had power to it -- enough that if he honed his technique, he'd be a fierce contender. The thought made Makoto happy, and also reminded him of his middle-school days of learning backstroke from Nao-senpai.

A moment later, he realized that Haruka was beside him, also watching Momotarou's form.

"I just thought of Nao-senpai again," Makoto said, wincing as Momotarou's head very definitely grazed the far wall. "Ahh -- that had to have hurt."

Haruka smiled just a little. "He was your first kiss, wasn't he? Nao-senpai."

"If you don't count the one when you and I --"

"Where you and Haru what?" Rin interrupted, pausing as he walked by with his captain’s clipboard.

Makoto moved to the other side of Haruka. "We were five," Makoto said quickly.

"After that, we were both certain we liked girls," Haruka said.

"What changed that?" Rin asked, expression almost comically suspicious as he looked from Makoto to Haruka.

"You," Haruka responded, and sighed when Rin's expression melted. "Rin. Don't cry."

"Haru -- let's go get changed. I can't wait to head to your house."

"You change first, I need a moment with Makoto."

"Okay but no kissing."

Makoto shook his head. The number of times their relationship had been misinterpreted was countless, as if every kind of love had to result in romance. It sometimes bothered him, because it felt like people were limiting themselves, but it was really their problem and not his.

“Makoto. You’re staying here tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you planning to have sex?”

“HARU.” Makoto’s hand flew up to cover his face. “No, no sex. Sousuke doesn’t want to do that until after I answer his confession, and I think he’s probably right…”

“Hm. I see.”

Haruka was still staring out into the distance, following Sousuke’s butterfly as he touched the far wall. “He’s different now. In the water. I swam next to him earlier, and the darkness I felt before is lighter.”

Haruka was talking about water, which meant… “So I have your approval?” Not that Makoto needed it. But he also did, and he probably always would, and that was a fact of his existence.

Meeting Makoto’s eyes, Haruka shrugged, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Makoto. Do what you want. But the water accepts him now.”

That was good enough for Makoto, even though Haruka’s connection with water always, always made his head hurt. He bowed his head a little in thanks, and then heard Rin’s voice in the distance.

“OI! Come on, quit groping Makoto and let’s go!”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night for our run?” Makoto asked.

“Yeah. Be safe. Use co --”

“Don’t say it!”

“-- common sense. And Makoto. Remember our discussion from before? Keep your feelings…”

“I know. I’ve been thinking about it,” Makoto said quietly, staring out into the water again.

~

A long time later, Makoto and Sousuke were still in the water. Momotarou and the rest of the team were gone, but Makoto wasn’t keeping track of the time. The two of them were caught in a bubble of strange and wonderful timelessness because they were playing a game.

At least, Makoto thought it was a game. It didn’t have clear rules, but it seemed to be some kind of water chase, where Sousuke swam underwater to touch him so lightly that it was like tickling on his back, or neck, or knees, or feet, and then swam away before Makoto could catch him.

Makoto knew they were both strong in the water. His own backstroke was one of the strongest that he knew, although his modesty made him say otherwise. However, Sousuke moved through the water with an ease that left Makoto in the dust. Makoto was used to swimming with Haruka, and even if Sousuke was giving him quite the chase, Makoto had the endurance to chase after him.

Underwater, looking forward through his goggles, he saw Sousuke’s legs scissor in front of him. Sousuke dove downward in a graceful spiral towards the pool’s deep bottom -- and then he could see Sousuke’s smile turned back toward him. Sousuke left a strong undercurrent in his wake, and Makoto swam to one side of it, propelling himself downward to follow where Sousuke went, pushing his arms through the water as though he was flying. 

Sousuke stopped swimming when Makoto reached the bottom of the pool, and for a moment they floated around each other in a weightless dance, turning like large sea mammals in a sinuous twist. Sousuke grinned at him, reaching a hand out toward him -- and then turned and swam away again, swiftly, so that Makoto was left chasing his wake.

Swimming after Sousuke as hard as he could put Makoto in mind of the relays he’d swum. This didn’t feel like swimming against Sousuke as much as swimming with him -- he wasn’t even chasing him now, but just playing too. Sousuke was hard to catch up with, so Makoto pushed himself -- hard, harder -- and finally did it, pulling alongside Sousuke, both swimming at a furious pace through the depths of the pool.

In that moment, shoving himself forward with Sousuke next to him, Makoto felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time. He’d swum so hard that his lungs were aching, his arm muscles straining, his body still rocketing forward… and because of that, because Sousuke pushed him, he saw _it_.

Looking forward, looking all around them, Makoto saw the light.

Sousuke was outlined by it, his strong hands reaching out for it too, and they were swimming through the glowing tunnel together.

They broke the surface of the water near the side of the pool both at once, and Makoto turned to look at Sousuke with dazed eyes. He could still feel it inside of him, that sense of pushing hard and achieving that thing he wanted more than anything.

Makoto reached out with a hand and gripped Sousuke’s. He wasn’t sure what to say, wasn’t sure what to ask Sousuke, but he was sure they’d both felt the same thing.

Sousuke was looking at him with a serious expression, as if his brain was settling around a vastly altered opinion. “Once, Rin explained to me why he fell for Nanase,” Sousuke said after a moment, pushing his goggles back.

“Ah -- which story? The ‘my shining’ one?” Makoto asked, a little wryly. He’d heard every story, of course. He’d been the only audience for those two for a long time.

“Yeah. And because Rin left … well, me … for Nanase, I could never understand it.” Sousuke was grinning then, his cheeks just a little flushed. “But I saw it, just now. It was what Rin described, but...not with Nanase.”

“Please, please, don’t use water metaphors if it’s about emotions,” Makoto said, biting his lip. He’d had a lifetime of that, too, and he was done.

Sousuke chuckled, reaching out to grip Makoto by the waist and pull him in. “I’ll stop, then. But I know you saw it too. You were next to me, and we were in it together.”

“Sousuke --”

And then their lips met, and they were kissing in the Samezuka pool, softly but hungrily, and their arms went around each other. Kissing underwater was tricky but possible, until Makoto really needed air. When they surfaced, Makoto leaned his forehead against Sousuke’s, sighing with happiness.

“Is it time to get out of the pool?” Makoto had a sudden urge for the land, and solid surfaces, the better to push Sousuke up against them.

“You shower first while I do more laps.”

“There are a lot of showers, you could --”

“No, I couldn’t,” Sousuke’s voice went very, very low. “And you know why.”

~

“You’re a shark at Hanafuda,” Makoto said a bit later, clicking his tongue at his modest score pile. They were sprawled on the floor of the Matsuoka-Yamazaki dorm room, a bag of rice crackers by their side, cards between them.

“I was close to my grandfather growing up. I was alone but for him a lot until I met Rin, so I learned to play all kinds of traditional games. You should see me at Shougi.” Sousuke glanced up at Makoto, his blue eyes glinting over the cards in a come-hither challenge.

Makoto felt his breath stop for a moment, thinking with just a bit of anguish that the only reason they were keeping a few feet between them was because he still hadn’t found the right moment to answer Sousuke’s words. They could be making out. They could be… 

“I’d like to see you at Shougi. Do you have it here?”

“No, but we could go to the common room. They have a set there.”

“No!” Oops, Makoto sounded a lot more vehement than he should’ve. He sat up, sighing, knowing his face was turning red. “I just want you all to myself, and I’m pretty sure that if I let you go out there, you’ll get swamped by rabid kouhai.”

Sousuke chuckled, but he sat up too, giving Makoto an even lazier smile. “What should we do now that I’m done beating you at cards?”

Makoto moved. He was on Sousuke’s lap a moment later, straddling his hips and catching Sousuke’s shoulders in his hand. He took a deep breath to say what he wanted when Sousuke buried his face in Makoto’s chest. Makoto could feel Sousuke’s body shaking just a little.

“What is it? Are you okay?” Makoto’s fingers wound into Sousuke’s dark hair, and he held Sousuke’s head against his chest. Ah -- Sousuke’s hair no longer smelled of Makoto’s shampoo. That was a shame. But maybe later, Makoto could smell like Sousuke’s...

Sousuke shifted them, and Makoto felt himself pressed gently back onto little stacks of cards, Sousuke’s face above his. Those clear eyes were staring down at him with the tenderest expression. 

“I’m fine. Or rather, I feel a lot of things. For you, just to make that clear.” Sousuke hid his head against Makoto’s shoulder when he said it, and his body trapped Makoto in the fiercest hug. Trapped, literally, because Makoto couldn’t have moved if he tried.

“Sousuke!” Makoto gave a shaky laugh, and as best he could, gathered in the body trapping his own into a hug too. Was now a good time, or would it just sound forced, because Sousuke kept saying these kinds of things? Makoto couldn’t figure it out, and it was agonizing him a little. He opened his mouth, only to have it stopped by a kiss that was hard and hungry. Sousuke’s tongue slid against his, and Makoto sucked on it with a whimpering groan that he was embarrassed to realize came from his own throat. But the kiss wove straight down his nerves, and as he settled Sousuke more firmly over him, they began to move together in hip-rubbing thrusts to echo the thrust of Sousuke’s tongue.

It seemed that Sousuke wasn’t able to hold back any further, and that was more than fine with Makoto; he was done waiting, and had been since saying _hello_ that morning. After that long kiss, Sousuke’s mouth traveled down his neck, and an insistent hand pushed at the fabric of Makoto’s shirt. He found it up around his neck a moment later, and Sousuke looked up at him with his mouth lingering at the muscles of Makoto’s chest. “May I?”

“Yes -- yes -- yes,” Makoto said, clearing his throat of the huskiness in it. He reached down to tug Sousuke’s shirt off too, and slid it over Sousuke’s head to land somewhere near Rin’s skateboard. Shirts off, Sousuke’s mouth bit the corner of Makoto’s collarbone, and Makoto gave an open-mouthed gasp. His fingers dug hard into the edges of Sousuke’s shoulder blades, and Sousuke drew an achingly slow path to Makoto’s nipple.

The slide of Sousuke’s tongue against his nipple made Makoto feel things he had no idea his body could feel, and he realized he’d probably just left welts in Sousuke’s back. “Oh no -- they’ll see it when you swim --”

“Good,” Sousuke grunted, and dug his teeth in the tiniest bit.

“Sousuke!” Makoto gasped, only to realize that Sousuke was staring up at him again, blue eyes completely melted.

“I really, really like hearing you say my name in that tone of voice.”

“I really, really like --” but before Makoto could finish his sentence, Sousuke’s mouth was on his nipple again, and he felt his erection pushing hard somewhere against Sousuke’s stomach. Even trapped in his pants it felt good -- no -- amazing, and Makoto let his body writhe in slow thrusts to chase that feeling.

“Haaah. Makoto, we should...keep...our underwear on. But let’s take our pants off.”

Great. Grinding his teeth with frustration, Makoto realized that confessing just then would sound like he was simply saying it to get laid. Before he could express anything, though, Sousuke was standing, unbuttoning his pants to slide them off, and kneeling back over Makoto in nothing but a pair of tight, dark boxer-briefs that made Makoto’s throat dry.

He fumbled quickly at the buttons to his own pants, and had them off a moment later. They both paused, and Makoto realized that Sousuke was staring at him just as intently. 

“Why is this so different from a swimsuit,” Makoto asked, a completely rhetorical question because he knew the answer.

“You’re wearing nothing but underwear for _me_ ,” Sousuke said, and pushed Makoto back onto the bag of rice crackers (accidentally) before it got shoved under Rin’s bed (Makoto made a mental note to fish them back out later) and Sousuke let his tongue run a long line down Makoto’s stomach to right above the waist of the plain white briefs. “I’ve never thought of value-pack briefs as sexy before, but I think I’m going to have to avoid looking at them in the store from now on.”

Makoto covered his face with his arm. “I -- I don’t own anything fancy --”

“I don’t want you to. This suits you, so, so well --” 

For a moment, Sousuke’s mouth hovered torturously close to the long bump threatening to spill out of Makoto’s waistband before Sousuke crawled back up Makoto’s body and settled them together again. 

“E-even if we have our underwear on, I am totally going to come. Just from rubbing against you. Is that...ok with the rules?” Makoto said in a tiny voice from behind his arm.

Sousuke gave the warmest, happiest laugh. “How can you keep getting more cute? I can’t stand it, seriously. Please come, come inside those white briefs, and you can wear a pair of mine to sleep in.”

“Oh -- God --” 

A second later they were kissing again, the kind of wet, deep kiss that Makoto felt might as well be sex anyway. He could feel Sousuke’s erection against his through the fabric of their underwear, and he put his hands down to totally feel up Sousuke’s rear. He admitted to himself guiltily that he had a thing for it. 

“You like my ass.” Sousuke noticed.

“I -- I _adore_ your bottom.”

Sousuke’s laughter was lost in more kisses, and the pressure of their mutual thrusting made Makoto’s brain turn off completely. Luckily all his hard fingerprints on Sousuke’s bottom would be covered by legskins, so Makoto let himself grip Sousuke as much as he wanted, pressing down with his fingers while pressing up with his hips.

Everything was melting -- and from Sousuke’s groans and the increasing wetness he could feel even through the fabric of their underwear, he knew they were going to explode together.

“Kiss me while I --”

“Makoto --”

For a blinding second, they were in such synchronized motion and emotion that it felt compounded. Makoto body sang with a spike of sensation before he exploded into a sticky, hot mess; then he felt Sousuke arch and gasp above him. 

After that, they didn’t stop kissing. Makoto’s fingers went much gentler though, soothing and rubbing the bruises he’d undoubtedly pressed into the skin of Sousuke’s rear, while Sousuke rained kisses on his mouth, neck, ears, shoulders, collarbone…

And then Makoto’s arms went around Sousuke, pressing him close.

It would be almost unbearable to confess just then. Too many feelings already. He’d do it next time.

Sousuke sighed and rolled them both to their sides, their foreheads meeting sweat to sweat.

“...Makoto. Did you just draw a little heart on my ass?”

Makoto’s fingers froze guiltily.

“You did, didn’t you.”

“No! it was my initials, honest.”

“Don’t lie. It was totally a heart.”

~

Walking down the hall away from their senpai’s room, heads bent and faces ashen, Momotarou turned to Nitori. “Will -- will Tachibana-san be okay in there? Sousuke-senpai sounded like he was getting kind of rough.”

“I hope so,” Nitori said. “Tachibana-san is a strong guy and can hold his own. But now we’d better figure out a way to explain the noises to everyone else.”


	7. Remembering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a lot of things are said.

“I cannot drink your blood,” the pale man whispered. The night had no moon at all, which was a blessing for both of them perhaps, but the man’s expression was inutterably confused. He’d sunk his fangs into Sousuke’s neck, but had immediately drawn back as if it burnt him.

“You shouldn’t go biting strangers anyway,” Sousuke said dryly.

It was almost as if the vampire...blushed? Could vampires even blush? This was getting less realistic by the moment. 

“I … If I told you I was simply hungry, would you believe me?” 

The vampire had green eyes so beguilingly sweet that Sousuke almost believed him, but he threw his head back and growled out a laugh instead. “I’m hungry every night, I’m hungry every full moon. But it doesn’t make me go out and find the first little rabbit that I meet and rip its throat out.”

Sousuke watched the vampire actually pale and shudder. “You’d do that to a rabbit?” The vampire cried, and Sousuke felt instantly as though he had to apologize.

“Ah -- no. Well. I mean. I’m… I only eat fish, really. It’s a little strange in wolf form, but there’s a good river for salmon and --”

“Ah.” The glowing man stilled, his face fading from shocked to disappointed in seconds. “You’re a lycanthrope.”

“Yeah.”

There was a moment of silence between them, and Sousuke felt as though the light from those green eyes had gone out, just a little.

“I’m sorry?”

“No -- I mean, I bet you’re a handsome wolf. It’s just that, well, I shouldn’t be here talking to you. They say if our kinds meet, bad things happen, things that I shouldn’t awaken.”

“That’s a myth,” Sousuke responded, reaching out to take the cold hand of the vampire in his own warm one. “It’s just that you can’t drink my blood, which I’m sure is not really an incentive to hang out with me. But what were you _really_ hungry for?” He stepped closer, watching the vampire eye him up with an entirely different sort of longing.

“F-friendship. Just...someone to talk to that won’t...go away when they age...or die from human frailty.”

The voice went very quiet, and Sousuke reached out a hand to caress the fluff of light-colored hair, a movement of comfort and curiosity, both at once. “I don’t know why, but the animal in me _wants_ you.”

“Does the human in you want me too?” The vampire asked quietly, looking down, away.

“Very much.”

“I don’t know if I can --” the vampire's shoulders started to shake, with what emotion Sousuke didn’t know, so he stepped forward and caught him up in a hug, holding him close. “We aren’t supposed to --”

“We can. We will. We are. I’m like you, and I won’t go away.”

… The weirdest part of the dream was that Sousuke felt the warm, bare shoulders shaking against his body even after he was half awake. It was as though the dream continued in the half-light of the dorm room. It was morning, and he saw the sun fall through the cracks in the blinds onto the floor.

In front of him, wedged neatly between Sousuke and the wall in the tiny upper bunk, Makoto was clearly having a nightmare.

“Makoto -- Makoto,” Sousuke said, as softly as he could. He watched as Makoto rolled to his stomach, the bunched muscles of his back exposed, all the way down to the tight green underwear that Sousuke had lent him the night before.

_“Green? Is this to match my eyes, Sousuke?” Makoto’s tone had been so playful that Sousuke almost had to deny it._

_“Of course,” He said instead, and when Makoto returned after his shower and removed his sweat pants, Sousuke nearly died. It was the hardest thing in the world to not take those underwear right off him again, but he reached for unbearable amounts of control and simply went to sleep._

Makoto was whimpering against Sousuke’s pillow. “Don’t go, ojiichan -- the storm,” he said in strange, garbled sleep-language. “Faces. Haru, they have no faces. Why are they in a row? Where are they going?”

His expression caught at Sousuke’s heart, and he took Makoto’s hand in his, rolling to half-pin him in a hug against the bed. He settled his head against Makoto’s shoulders and kissed the cleft between them. 

“Makoto,” Sousuke said quietly into his ear, “You had a dream.”

“Ha-Haru? Why are you -- …” Makoto said hazily, and then opened his eyes enough to realize that the bed wasn’t Haruka’s, and the man above him wasn’t Haruka. “Oh no!” Makoto gasped, and brought his fist to his mouth to bite a knuckle. “I didn’t mean to insult you, Sousuke…”

In response, Sousuke just smiled. “It’s okay. At least I haven’t called you ‘Rin’ yet.”

After a moment, Makoto chuckled too. “Fair enough.” Makoto’s relief at Sousuke’s response was evident, and he relaxed into the bed again with one last shiver. “Thank you for waking me. It feels so good, having you hold me.”

“Was it a nightmare?” Sousuke asked quietly, seeing Makoto’s expression turn troubled. He kissed the back of Makoto’s neck, and then the soft spot behind his ear. Their skin, sliding together, was doing things to him, but he ignored it for the moment.

“I realized at some point yesterday that it’s the anniversary of that storm,” Makoto said, his voice quiet. “There was an epic storm in Iwatobi when we were little. It wiped out a large percentage of the fishermen, our father's generation. You were here, right? Do you remember it?”

Sousuke did remember it. The crying survivors, the mass mourning. It was one of the worst days of his childhood. He kissed Makoto’s neck again. “Yeah. It’s the one that took the life of Rin’s father, yes?”

“And a friend of mine. An old man. He went out in a fishing boat that dawn, not far from the sheltering bay. He never returned.”

“Makoto.” Shifting them again (with a bit of difficulty in the small bunk), Sousuke rolled to his back (careful to ease onto the usual morning ache he'd been feeling more and more often) and pulled Makoto against his chest. He heard Makoto sigh and melt into his body, and smiled against Makoto’s hair. Ahh -- Makoto's hair smelled like Sousuke’s shampoo that morning, and he almost sniffed it like the wolf of his dream as he buried his nose down.

“I had a weird dream too,” Sousuke began, when the phone hanging by a strap from one of his bedposts buzzed from a text. He glanced over at it, and then furrowed his brow when he saw that it was Rin. “Pardon me. This is probably important…”

Glancing at the text, he was almost glad that Makoto had forewarned him about the day. “Ah. It’s Rin, he says that he and Nanase are going to his father’s grave this morning, and asked if we’d like to join them.”

Makoto sighed, and Sousuke felt him drawing those idle lines against his skin again. He squirmed just a little. “Yes?”

“Mm. Yes, it would be a good thing to do,” Makoto said, but his tone was just a little, cutely, ambivalent.

Sousuke chuckled, snuggling Makoto so hard for a moment that he was pretty sure he’d cut off his air. 

“Oof,” Makoto laughed. “Be careful. I’m big but so are you.”

“Let’s do it. Then we can go back to your house and pay respects at your altar, for your friend.”

Makoto went still against Sousuke’s skin, and when Sousuke glanced down to see what he was thinking, he met a pair of green eyes looking up at him with such melting appreciation that he blushed. “Oy. It’s just to get you in my bed again, don’t get me wrong.”

“I’d believe you except that I’m in your bed,” Makoto said quietly, “and you’ve made no move on me except to comfort me when I feel sad.” Makoto dropped his face down to Sousuke’s skin, and he felt little kisses there, kisses that worked their way up to his neck, settling into a groove of sinew that felt especially good…

Sousuke groaned, his eyes closing, and then realized that Makoto was still determinedly sucking on that spot. “Nnh -- Makoto -- you’re turning me on and -- that’s going to leave a --” His breath was coming in huffs, and he felt Makoto’s hand on his skin, caressing down his side slowly to cup his ass. Sousuke got his phone out of the way before he buried his fingers into Makoto’s hair.

“Ahhh --” Makoto finally let up, pulling back to look at the mark with a satisfied expression. 

“You seriously just --”

“It matches the nail marks on your back and finger bruises on your bottom,” Makoto said, staring at Sousuke with a look that was seriously untying every bit of resolve Sousuke had to keep their underwear on.

But then Makoto’s phone went off.

“I bet it’s Nanase, making sure we’re coming,” Sousuke said, trying his best not to feel the twinge of darkness that always passed through his emotions when Nanase’s name came up, whether he meant to feel it or not.

Makoto reached out and gripped his phone, resting one ear against Sousuke’s heartbeat. “Yes, it’s Haru. I’ll tell him we’ll be there soon.” He typed quickly with one thumb, then put his phone down.

“Before we go,” Sousuke growled, shifting to his side and squirming down far enough to get his teeth somewhere nice and visible on Makoto’s neck, “It’s my turn.” If Makoto was playing the vampire, then Sousuke would be the werewolf. He found the niche between Makoto’s neck and collarbone and sank his teeth in, listening to the hitch in Makoto’s breath. Then he nipped it hard, knowing (sensing) that to Makoto, a slight bit of pain translated straight to...yep. He felt the stirring in Makoto’s body and grinned into his bite.

Pulling back, Sousuke saw with enormous satisfaction that rings of teeth now adorned Makoto’s neck. “I hope your shirt has a low collar.”

Makoto chuckled. “If it doesn’t, I’ll wear yours.”

Sousuke very nearly didn’t let him out of bed after that.

~

Dressed and cleaned up, they stopped by the convenience store to get breakfast before heading to the train. Sousuke saw Makoto hesitating over the conbini onigiri before finally choosing a bottled vegetable smoothie instead. Sousuke grabbed the onigiri.

“Ah -- Gou-chan is getting on our cases about nutrition,” Makoto said sheepishly, swigging the chunky green drink and making a face.

“We don’t do badly. Samezuka is pretty careful about what they serve athletes.”

Makoto glanced up at Sousuke, a slightly troubled look on his face. Sousuke wondered what was going through his mind when the train came. Before long, they were walking out toward the long curve of cove that held all of the memorials from the storm. In the distance, they saw Haruka and Rin busy with trowel and scrubbing brush, cleaning the grave.

Sousuke felt Makoto reach out and grip his hand, and glanced down at him with a bit of surprise. 

“I feel embarrassed now,” Makoto said, “It’s an important day, but I would almost rather just have spent it in your room.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say anything so selfish,” Sousuke chuckled, but he felt another wash of warmth in his heart. Damn, if Makoto didn’t answer his confession soon, he’d… But now was certainly not the day to press for it. He turned his thoughts instead to Rin, and Makoto, and their shared pain.

At the grave, Haruka spotted them first, eyes drifting down to the joined hands, then up to the matching marks on their necks. Sousuke had to hand it to Haruka -- the guy was able to remain expressionless even when their newfound closeness was getting rubbed in his face. They dropped hands, though, Makoto turning to pay his respects to the shrine, and Sousuke going to Rin’s side.

He set a hand on Rin’s shoulder. “You two did a good job here. Sorry we were late.”

“Ah, it’s fine. I didn’t remember until Gou reminded me. Too much going on these days.”

“Where is Gou-chan?” Sousuke asked, watching the shifts in Rin’s expression as he turned an eye back to the shrine.

“She and mom will be here later. Haru suggested that we come first and clean and save them the trouble.”

Sousuke glanced up at Haruka, meeting his eyes and giving the slightest look of approval. Haruka met his eyes steadily, and then looked at Makoto, who had walked to look out at the sea.

“Makoto had a nightmare this morning,” Sousuke said quietly. “About the ojiisan who drowned in the storm.”

Haruka nodded, and then turned to head after Makoto. 

Sousuke watched for a second as Haruka put his arm around Makoto’s shoulder, and Makoto leaned his head to rest it against Haruka’s hair. He took a deep breath, willing away the inevitable twinge of jealousy, only to hear Rin’s chuckle.

“It’s almost nice to have someone to help me deal with those two,” Rin said wryly, handing Sousuke some incense and a match.

Sousuke lit it, placing it on the edge of the shrine and then kneeling.

After he was done paying his respects he stood, and he and Rin walked to the edge of the cliff too, far enough from Makoto and Haruka to give them privacy.

“How was your night?” Rin asked. “That’s a pretty dark hickey on your neck.” He kept his tone conversational, but snickered at Sousuke’s sideways glare.

“Mm. It was good, but...now I think I’m really in trouble,” Sousuke admitted, running his hand through his hair and squinting out to where the bright morning sky met the waves.

“Trouble? Ah...you’re really into him, eh? That Makoto.”

“From the start. I never even considered something purely physical. I kissed him and realized I wanted more than just that. And now all I want to do is take him with me when I go back to Tokyo." Sousuke intentionally left his words vague -- Rin didn't know what he was going back to Tokyo for, and simply assumed it was for swimming. Sousuke still wasn't ready to say more. "He hasn’t answered my confession yet, but even if he does, we don’t have long…”

“Hey,” Rin cut him short, giving him a sharp look. “Are you talking to me about what people give up for the sake of those they care about?”

Sousuke realized that he’d been insensitive, and sighed. He glanced over at Rin, thinking about their last conversation, one that was ostensibly about relay but actually about relationships. Rin left Sano for Iwatobi just to be with Nanase, and left Australia for Iwatobi because he couldn’t forget Nanase. 

“So? What are you two doing with YOUR futures?” Sousuke asked, to buy time.

Rin frowned just a little. “That is one of a few enormous fights that we’re in the middle of, but he keeps distracting me with swimming and sex. But I do know this. If someone is so far in your heart that you can’t let him go, you’ll find a way to make it work.”

Sousuke found that Rin’s words silenced him. He felt the _rightness_ of them, even if he didn’t want to admit it. Rin was an enormous romantic to put relationships on par with his future, but now that Sousuke had met someone who had that much draw to him, he admitted to himself that he understood.

He wasn’t going to say as much to Rin, though. Not yet.

Sousuke chuckled. “Boast much?”

“Shut up! You’ll be just the same in a little while too, you --”

And then they were at it, scuffling at the edge of the cliff, enough to draw the attention of Makoto and Haruka.

“I leave you alone for a bare second,” Haruka said, extracting Rin from Sousuke’s headlock with a tug to the collar.

“What are you up to?” Makoto’s voice was fond and exasperated, as if he was talking to his younger siblings, but Sousuke saw that Makoto’s eyes were awash with emotion.

Sousuke instantly dropped Rin and stepped over to Makoto, sliding an arm around his shoulders, tugging him close. “Is it time to go? Shall we go pay respects at your house?” Since he was already being more demonstrative than he should out in public (he seriously couldn’t help himself when Makoto had that kind of look in his eye), Sousuke also rested his lips against Makoto’s hair.

Makoto wrapped an arm around Sousuke in return and gave him a brief squeeze. “Yeah.”

Turning, they caught two sets of eyes staring at them.

“Er. We’re heading off…” Makoto said, his voice trailing away as he looked from Rin to Haruka.

“Whoa,” Rin muttered in an undertone.

“Hmm,” Haru responded, his expression very, very blank indeed.

~

They paid their respects to Makoto’s old friend at the family shrine, and then, with Ran and Ren in tow, they also left incense at the grave of the little goldfish friends in Makoto’s courtyard.

Sousuke felt it in his heart, that if Makoto cared enough about fish to make them a grave, he’d be completely devastated if someone he decided to care about moved far away. He sat back on his ankles and sighed, watching the incense trailing up into the sky, thinking about things that had no answer. Like _do I even have the right to ask him to like me?_ and _I understand if he doesn’t want to take the chance, when Makoto loves something, he loves it HARD_.

But then Makoto stood, reaching down to tug at Sousuke’s sleeve. “Let’s go for a walk,” Makoto suggested, and it looked as if he had a lot on his mind, so Sousuke agreed.

Leaving Ran and Ren behind to tidy up the little fish shrine, they headed up the steps to the temple above Haruka’s house. At the top of the hill there were railings, and they could look down the hill and over the town into the water.

“How are you feeling?” Sousuke asked Makoto, standing next to him at an overlook, leaning against the rail.

“That’s what I brought you up here to talk about,” Makoto said, staring out at the water too. At the moment it looked calm, sun reflecting off the surface in a shifting glimmer.

“Discuss…” That sounded a little ominous, so Sousuke glanced sideways at him, and realized that Makoto had done the same, so they both turned to face each other.

“My answer to you is yes,” Makoto said quietly. “I talked about it with Haru, a little. That the only thing holding me back was fear of the future. He pointed something out to me, though. That if I keep living like I’m afraid of what’s going to happen next, I’ll never enjoy life right now. It made sense…”

So they’d both been thinking about the same thing. Sousuke’s heart was pounding too loudly for him to say anything, though, so he kept quiet and listened.

“I like you, Sousuke. I like you a _lot_. I know you’re moving back to Tokyo, and I think I might be moving there too, so if you want…if you want…let’s try this.”

Sousuke reached out and gripped Makoto by the shoulders, staring into his eyes for a long moment before pulling Makoto up against his heart. It felt like all of his wishes had been answered at once, and his emotions were too full to say anything at all.

Makoto held him just as hard, and Sousuke felt him sighing with relief (or something?) against Sousuke’s shoulder.

And then, “Crap. I should’ve chosen a better anniversary day,” Makoto muttered, and laughed.

“Oh, Makoto. We’ll pretend that you said all this to me yesterday night. And that we had the most epic sex in the world after that.” The corners of Sousuke’s mouth almost hurt from his grin.

“Well,” Makoto’s face began to burn against Sousuke’s shoulder, and Sousuke wondered why. “Well, um. Haru said that next weekend, he’d go visit Rin, and we … we can um … use his house for the night.”

Oh.

“He’s a good friend to you…us,” Sousuke said, feeling his heartbeat speed up even more. He pulled back, thinking about all of the possibilities, and then leaned to kiss Makoto’s forehead, nose, lips…

Then he felt it again, fingers on his back, drawing tiny things.

“Fine, that one was a heart,” Makoto admitted with an embarrassed chuckle.

“Tachibana Makoto, I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to have my SouRin, MakoHaru moments, ok. Forgive me. Also, the next chapter is nothing but smut to make up for this remorseless fluff.


	8. Growing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff and sex. That is all.

Running beside Haruka, Makoto felt his pace fall in with his friend’s, two boys running side-by-side as they always had. But before Makoto could really find his stride, Haruka glanced sideways and let his pace slow until he came to a halt. They weren’t at their usual resting point, so Makoto stumbled a few paces more before he turned to look at Haruka.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ll leave the key under the large stone by the front door for you tomorrow.” Haru was staring out into the distance, gazing at the expanse of darkness between the night sea and the stars.

“Ah. Thank you again. I’ll...I’ll change the sheets, after,” Makoto said, his hand scrubbing at his hair in a wash of embarrassment. 

“You’d better. I’ll leave food for you two in the fridge. Or -- does Yamazaki cook? Because you don’t.”

“Haru --” Makoto laughed, walking closer, settling a hand on Haruka’s shoulder. “You sound like a mother, you know. We’ll feed ourselves, you don’t have to leave us anything.”

“I feel like one!” Haruka stared up at Makoto with a slight frown on his face, and then looked sideways, sighing. “It’s not just this. This is the start. I’ll miss you when you go, Makoto.”

“I’ll miss you too. Things will be different, that’s for sure.” Makoto said it quietly, but he knew that there were a lot of changes that would happen in a thick and fast flurry before the end of school. They’d go to Nationals, perhaps. Maybe Haruka would finally write something other than “Free” on his graduation form. Maybe Rin would move into Haruka’s house in Iwatobi, and use it as a home base for his training. Maybe a lot of things… 

“Well,” Haruka straightened his shoulders and met Makoto’s gaze with the slightest hint of a smile, “None of it is happening yet, and tomorrow -- you become a man.”

“HARU.” Makoto covered his face with both hands.

“You’re going to top, right?”

~

“You’re going to top, right?”

“EH?” Sousuke whipped his head sideways to glare at Rin as they jogged. “Isn’t that the kind of question you’re not supposed to ask a friend?”

“Oy -- of course I’m curious, who wouldn’t be? But hey, Sousuke, have you even _done it_ before?” Rin was in such shape that he wasn’t even panting, Sousuke noticed. In fact, his rhythm was even and his pace firm, even while talking. Hm, Sousuke would have to work harder. Still...

“This isn’t a conversation we’re going to have. Especially if you call sex ‘doing it.’” Sousuke smirked just a little at the annoyance that flashed across Rin’s face.

“Oh come on. You know chapter and verse about me and Haru -- you share too!”

“I didn’t ask you to share, though,” Sousuke objected. Rin was looking seriously put out, so Sousuke relented. He slowed to a halt and rubbed his towel across his neck. “As for who tops, we can rock-paper-scissors for it. And whether or not I’m a virgin is between me and Makoto.”

But Rin was frowning even more, and this time he poked his knee sideways and gave Sousuke a jab in the hip. “Oy -- you’d throwdown with someone besides ME? I thought that was just for us!”

“Ow, geez. Why would you think that, idiot?” Sousuke felt a strange emotion welling up within him, though, and glanced down at Rin’s face. Rin was giving his brow a final mop with a towel, and when Rin looked up, his expression was surprisingly fragile.

“I forgot that you get all worked up about things like that,” Sousuke said, and reached over to tousle Rin’s hair. “Fine, if that’s how you want it. That can be between us. Makoto and I will … flip a coin or something.”

“That’s an idiotic way to decide such a thing,” Rin said in his best disgruntled voice as he turned to start running again. But Sousuke saw that his cheeks were just a little flushed, and smiled fondly at his back.

“Rin.” Sousuke hesitated. It seemed a little silly to be saying this, but Rin apparently needed to hear this kind of thing before he understood it. “You do know why I moved to Samezuka for my last year of high school, right?”

“Eh? To be at home for your last year, yeah?” Rin turned around again, expression quizzical.

“To swim with _you_ , you idiot.” And before Rin could react, Sousuke took off. It wasn’t his fault that Rin was slow on the uptake. Behind him, he could hear Rin spluttering from surprise. “Rin -- hurry up if you’re serious about training!”

~

After Makoto’s run, they went back to Haruka’s house. Makoto wanted to get his homework done that night so that he’d have nothing to worry about the rest of the weekend. He got distracted by his phone, though, staring at it and biting his lip thoughtfully. Before he could pick up his phone to text Sousuke, it buzzed.

[Let’s have a real date somewhere before we go to Nanase’s house tomorrow. Where would you like to go?]

Makoto’s forehead hit his arm on the table and he sighed, staring at the words.

“Yamazaki, eh?” Haruka’s voice was dry.

“He’s so cute. Seriously. He wants to go out on a date. How do I tell him that I’d rather just jump his bones?” Makoto’s face turned red and he hid it in his arm again.

“Hm. Want me to text him that for you?” Haruka reached for Makoto’s phone.

“NO!” Makoto hid his phone under his arm.

Haruka picked up his own phone instead.

“HARU -- PLEASE don’t text Rin --”

~

“Oh my god,” Rin said from the bunk beneath Sousuke. Sousuke felt a foot kick his mattress. “You guys are so disgusting.”

“Eh?” Makoto still hadn’t replied to his text, Sousuke noted, frowning just a little.

“Haruka texted and said: Makoto doesn’t know how to tell Yamazaki that he just wants to jump his bones.”

Sousuke immediately rolled over, staring down at Rin as his face heated up. The thought of Makoto being so besotted that he immediately wanted to get naked...okay, it had his heart racing. He glared at Rin. “Don’t you dare text anything back to Nanase. This is between me and my boyfriend.”

“Tch. You wish. Those two are psychically connected.”

Sighing, Sousuke flopped onto his back, realizing his phone was buzzing.

[I actually want to go to the aquarium if you’re up for it. I’ve never gone there with someone who doesn’t try to strip and jump into the shark tank.]

Sousuke stared at his text in puzzlement. “Uh -- Rin -- what does this mean?” Sousuke read it to him.

Rin snorted. “Oh god, I forgot that Makoto has to put up with that. Every time Haru is near a container of water that can more or less fit his body, he actually strips off his clothing and tries to get into it. I can’t even imagine what he’d be like at an aquarium. I bet Makoto hasn’t been near one in years, just in case.”

Oh really? [I’d be glad to! Let’s meet outside of the one in town tomorrow.]

After he sent the text, Sousuke couldn’t stop smiling. What would Makoto look like for their date? What should Sousuke look like? He felt his heart fluttering and rolled to his stomach to calm himself down.

“What are you DOING up there, you big thing? You shake the whole bed every time you roll over.” Rin’s foot hit the bottom of Sousuke’s bunk again.

“I was wondering whether Makoto will wear his striped shirt again, or maybe the green one that matches his eyes.”

“OH MY GOD YOU’RE GROSS!” 

Sousuke heard the sound of Rin texting again, and after a moment saw his own phone light up.

[I’ll wear the green one if you like me in it, Sousuke. ;)]

It made Sousuke’s heart melt completely, enough that his growl was only half-hearted when he poked his head off his bunk to stare down at Rin. “Listen, bastard, I’m going to tell Makoto every single story about your sex life with Nanase if you keep this up, INCLUDING the one about feeding him mackerel in the bath.”

“Fine,” Rin snickered, his teeth sharp in his grin. “I’ll stop. But you, are you all prepared?”

“Eh? Oh. Yeah. I’ve got stuff that we need.” Sousuke was still blushing just a little, and pulled his pillow over his head. This was way too public for his own liking.

“...Because I have extra, and it isn’t even fish flavored.”

“RIN.”

~

Makoto thought he’d get there early and wait for Sousuke, but they both ended up arriving at exactly the same time, fifteen minutes before they’d said. It figured. Walking up to the meeting point from opposite directions, Makoto pulled on the hem of his green shirt a little shyly, only to look up and see Sousuke’s eyes go dark, predator-spotting-prey dark. It sent a pleasant shiver through Makoto’s body, and he gave Sousuke his brightest smile.

Sousuke was wearing a button-down that fit perfectly over his chest and hugged his waist, and as if to remind Makoto that they’d be spending the night together, a sports bag dangled from one shoulder. Makoto made a mental note to carry it half the time, it was only fair. His own bag was already at Haruka’s house.

“Makoto. I changed my mind about going on a date -- let’s go back to Nanase’s house already. I can’t even hug you out here, let alone kiss you the way that I’d like.” Sousuke’s voice was somehow lower and more velvet as he stepped closer.

“Of course we can hug,” Makoto said, and stepped even closer to wrap his arms around Sousuke’s waist. It wasn’t very Japanese, but Makoto figured that if anyone complained, one or the other of them was probably big enough to handle it. After a moment of stillness out of surprise, Sousuke’s arms went around Makoto’s shoulders, and they gave each other the kind of long, tight hug that men usually didn’t give other men.

“You look so...so good,” Sousuke murmured into Makoto’s ear. “I don’t know what I’m going to do for the rest of the day. Just stare at you maybe.”

“I should be saying that,” Makoto replied, feeling his body warm up from the hug. “You smell so incredibly good, too.” Sousuke smelled like some kind of ridiculous mix of musk and pure cocoa, and Makoto wanted to slide his mouth all over him. He broke away, though. “But we’re still going to the aquarium. You wouldn’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve set foot in one.”

Sousuke sighed, but nodded a reluctant assent. “It was my idea, after all…”

They didn’t hold hands because that would’ve been a little much. But they did walk side by side through the exhibits, shoulder bumping shoulder as Makoto stared around him. All of the colorful and bright and interestingly shaped fish were nice, but he especially loved the jellyfish, floating in a darkened room. They were ethereally glorious, and Makoto didn’t realize how long he’d been staring at the soft ebb and flow of their liquid bodies until he felt Sousuke’s hand on his back.

“You like them?”

“They remind me of the other day when we played in the water. Jellyfish have nothing else to do with their time except just this, simply enjoy how they feel when they move in the water.”

Sousuke’s expression turned thoughtful and they both stared at the beings that were more water than flesh. Eventually Makoto turned to walk on, but he pondered that the jellyfish actually reminded him a bit of Haru -- maybe it was that total lack of desire for much of anything outside of water -- and unwittingly, he found himself worrying. What was Haruka going to do with his time after Makoto left? Wait, crap, thinking about Haru while on a date?

But then, as if to remind him that he was there with Sousuke, Makoto felt a firm brush of fingers on the bare skin of his back, right above the waist of his pants. He sucked in his breath, turning to look up at Sousuke, but his boyfriend was staring elsewhere. “Look --”

They were in a tunnel that was surrounded by marine life of all kinds. Fish large and small swam around them, above and beside them, and it truly felt like they were on the living floor of the ocean. The tunnel was crowded with people, but they paused for a minute to simply stare. A shark drifted past, gaze intent and serious, but he was followed by a flock of bright yellow fish that obviously had no fear of him.

“Rin and his kouhai,” Sousuke chuckled to himself, and Makoto turned curious eyes to him. Ah, Sousuke was also thinking about his best friend too … well. Makoto felt a little better. But also, just because of that small twinge of jealousy that blossomed in his gut, he let his hand slide sideways to accidentally give Sousuke’s bottom a firm brush. He heard Sousuke’s breath hitch, but Makoto turned to walk away, the soul of innocence.

“Let’s go see the penguins!”

At the penguin exhibit, Sousuke caught Makoto’s wrist in his fingers, rubbing tiny circles around the soft underside. Makoto exhaled slowly, feeling the light touch all the way down his spine, but he pretended he felt nothing. When the soles of his feet began to tingle from the touch, Sousuke firmed his grip and pulled Makoto to the next exhibit, but Makoto was definitely still breathing harder.

At the shark tank, the room was packed, so Makoto made sure he stood right behind Sousuke, pressing his hips against the firm bottom that he adored so very much. His pants were tighter in the crotch than they had been before the penguins, so Makoto let Sousuke feel a little of what it might be like...later. When the crowds dispersed, Makoto stepped away before Sousuke could turn. “I think the dolphin show is starting, we should go sit down!”

Sousuke’s pupils were just a little dilated, though, and his expression was definitely darker than it had been. He got his revenge at the dolphin show. Seated beside each other, Sousuke’s fingers slid under Makoto’s shirt and his nails dug into Makoto’s lower back until Makoto felt the hair on his arms rise, and he had to concentrate hard to keep from embarrassing himself. It was not easy, and it took a moment before Makoto could stand after the show.

“Did you enjoy the dolphins?” Sousuke’s voice was deliberately bland, but his eyes...

Makoto cleared his throat, mesmerized by Sousuke’s expression. “How long have we been here?”

“Two hours.”

“Is that long enough to call it a date?” 

“More than.” 

Makoto stood. Then he slid his hand up Sousuke’s shoulder, catching Sousuke’s bag and hefting it up over his own shoulder.

Surprised into a chuckle, Sousuke followed him. “You’re such a gentleman, Tachibana Makoto.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts. Maybe for the length of the train ride.” Makoto’s voice was still husky. It was ridiculous how much he wanted Sousuke…

The train ride lasted forever, though. It wasn’t crowded enough that they could stand close to each other. Sitting side-by-side, they talked about the aquarium. 

“Did you think about Nanase when you saw the dolphins?” Sousuke asked.

Makoto shook his head. “To be honest I was thinking about multiplication tables. Anything to, uh, distract myself.”

“I see.” Sousuke looked so amused that Makoto felt the tiniest bit miffed, so he leaned over to whisper in Sousuke’s ear. 

“I kept thinking about how people are going to see your nail marks on my back at practice.”

“More than just nail marks, Makoto. I have plans for that back of yours.” Sousuke whispered in return. It did nothing to ease the tension between them, and how they didn’t end up making out on the train was beyond Makoto.

Somehow they finally made it off the train and up the steps to Haruka’s house. Makoto fumbled around under various rocks for the key, and they stepped into the house together.

There was a pregnant pause while Sousuke lifted his bag up off Makoto’s shoulder and set it on the ground. Then he gathered up a double fistful of Makoto’s green shirt and dragged their mouths together.

The kiss was hungry and fierce with none of the cuteness that they’d had so far, it was sheer, sharp desire, and to Makoto it felt _perfect_.

~

“Where’s the bedroom?” Sousuke murmured against Makoto’s lips, felt a growing sense of urgency. He pulled back long enough to get rid of his own shirt, tugging it up and off his head. Then he reached for Makoto’s shirt and removed it too. As pretty as Makoto looked in the shirt, he looked even better just like this. 

“Up here,” Makoto said, face still flushed from the kiss, walking backwards up the steps. Makoto’s hands were on his pants buttons, though, and with each step, another button came undone. Sousuke followed step by step, watching the show with absorption, and saw at the top of the stairs that those pants were sliding down Makoto’s hips to reveal Sousuke’s green underwear.

“Mmmmm. You wore my underwear.” The thought twisted in Sousuke’s stomach, and he was growing harder by the second.

“Ah! Yeah. I washed them, but...I decided not to return them. I hope you don’t mind.”

“You.” Sousuke huffed out his breath. Makoto had the amazing ability to undo any of his self control. He was on the step below Makoto so he pulled Makoto down into another kiss, sliding their tongues together in a wet push. His hands ran down Makoto’s strong sides and ended up at the waist of those underwear, but before taking them off, Sousuke backed down a few steps and leaned in to slide his lips over Makoto’s stomach. He felt all the muscles bunch under his lips, and then he grinned, nipping his teeth in hard enough to leave another sharp row indented in the muscle next to Makoto’s belly button.

“Ahhh!” Makoto’s gasp was so satisfying that Sousuke bit him again, feeling the lump in those green underwear swell until it could barely contain Makoto’s erection. 

Sousuke ran his mouth lower and closed his eyes, sighing in utter satisfaction. He could finally do what he’d longed to the second he’d lent Makoto those underwear. Makoto’s dick was trapped down one leg of the green briefs. Sousuke nuzzled in, rubbing his nose against it, and then mouthed at it over the soft cotton from the tip trapped against his leg up to the base. It felt perfect against Sousuke’s mouth, and he pondered for a moment that it would probably feel even better inside of him.

Those noises from Makoto suddenly sounded so shy… “Makoto, is this is your first time?”

“Yeah. Is -- is it yours?” 

Staring up at Makoto with his cheek still pressed up against Makoto’s erection, Sousuke saw that Makoto was blushing, a blush that spread down past his nipples to turn his torso pink.

“I’ve topped. I haven’t bottomed. My first time bottoming will be all yours, Makoto.” One final tug of fabric later, and Sousuke tossed the underwear somewhere down the stairs. Sousuke noticed with another melting twinge of heat that Makoto wasn’t shaved, but he had the softest patch of light brown curls. And that erection… Sousuke groaned and licked it, slowly, just the underside.

“O-on the stairs? Let’s at least … be careful just in case … AAHH… ” 

Sousuke grinned when Makoto’s worrying ended in an open-mouthed groan, and slid as much of that beautiful erection into his mouth as he could. He stared up while he did it, moving his tongue to compress and play with what was in his mouth, and was rewarded by the seeing the sexiest expression -- Makoto’s mouth wide open, his tongue touching his lower lip, his eyes hazy. Then Makoto’s weight shifted, but before they could stumble on the steps, Sousuke pulled away and led Makoto into the guest bedroom.

There were two futons on the floor, pushed together and dressed with clean sheets. Sousuke noticed unlit candles and two neatly folded pieces of paper (notes from Rin and Nanase? oh god) lying beneath the window, but he ignored them for the moment. He removed his own pants but kept on his underwear, pushing Makoto back onto the bed. Makoto lay with his eyes soft and hungry while Sousuke climbed over him, but Sousuke seriously didn’t know where to begin -- he wanted it all. 

He hid his head in Makoto’s neck with a chuckle. “I like you too much. I don’t know what to do first.”

~

“I have a few ideas,” Makoto laughed, covering his burning face with his arms. “No. Actually. I feel the same way. You look so amazingly hot. I have no idea how I’m going to last.” 

“Oh? Are you that hair trigger?” Sousuke sounded gleeful, that bastard. Makoto found himself wondering about Sousuke’s previous men with a twist of jealousy. 

“Then I think I’ll do this first to take the edge off,” Sousuke murmured. Sousuke leaned down to kiss Makoto first, though, extracting Makoto’s face from his arms. This time, the heat of bare chest against bare chest drew involuntary noises out of him, noises echoed by Sousuke’s low, happy purrs. Makoto was satisfied with just that -- he realized he could come like that, holding Sousuke against his heart and rubbing his bare erection up against a thigh. But...

More easily than he should have, Sousuke rolled Makoto to his stomach. Eh, already? Makoto swallowed hard, wondering whether he should’ve prepared himself more like Haruka had suggested… But then he felt nothing but the softest touches to his back. Sousuke’s hands felt almost reverent, floating against his skin as though studying him, from Makoto’s shoulders to his bottom.

“Sousuke?” Makoto gasped, and then he felt Sousuke’s weight shift, and a slow tongue lapping at his spine, beginning at the back of his neck and taking a slow path south. “Ohhhhhh,” Makoto groaned, and he felt himself throb against the futon with each lick.

Sousuke paused at Makoto’s lower back to kiss each side of it, digging his teeth into the indentations of the muscles, sucking a hard mark into the skin. Each lick and kiss shivered through Makoto, and by the time Sousuke got to his tailbone he was a wreck.

“I am going -- to come. The second I touch my --”

“Makoto, spread your legs.”

“Eh?” Makoto gasped, looking behind him. Sousuke’s eyes were gleaming at him from behind the curve of makoto’s bottom, and Sousuke tongue flicked just a little at his upper lip. When Makoto realized what was about to happen, he buried his face in his arms from acute embarrassment -- but did as he was told. Then he felt Sousuke’s tongue slide over his tailbone and descend. Lower, and lower...and Makoto almost sobbed with the sensation of Sousuke’s tongue sliding down between his cheeks.

“You make the cutest noises.”

“PLEASE don’t stop --” Makoto gasped, and realized that his body was taking control, thrusting against the bed while Sousuke’s tongue lapped at the incredibly sensitive skin. He’d never felt so embarrassed or so turned on both at once. Whimpering from the desire to come, Makoto slid his hand beneath his hips, but Sousuke gripped Makoto’s wrist.

“I want to,” Sousuke said, and reached beneath Makoto to slowly stroke him in time with each lick.

“NNNh -- YES -- PLEASE --” Makoto was speaking in garbled gasps, his whole body trembling, and with one final slow, wet lap of sensation he was over the edge and coming. The moment of intensity rose and broke over him with a beautiful ache, and his fingers gripped into the sheets. He came so hard he felt weightless for a moment… and then the embarrassment crashed through him too. “Oh...god...Sousuke… you just...” Makoto grabbed a pillow and pulled it over his head. It was hard to hide a body as big as his, but by god he tried. 

Makoto heard Sousuke’s pleased chuckle and almost peeked out to glare at him. Instead, he felt kisses, soft ones, all over the curves of his bottom. He closed his eyes, trying to calm his breathing, but his body still tingled. “I don’t think I’m going to stop blushing ever again.”

Sousuke’s voice was low and still hungry behind him. “You’re so hot, and cute, and…Makoto, if you don’t mind, I need to be inside you as soon as I can.”

“Please,” Makoto whispered into the pillow.

“Wait one second.” The warmth of Sousuke’s body disappeared, and Makoto heard him head first to the bathroom (to use mouthwash? Makoto heard gargling and felt sheepishly grateful) and then down the stairs. Sousuke returned with his bag and various bits of scattered clothing. 

“Out of your pillow fortress?” Sousuke chuckled, glancing down at Makoto with such warm eyes that Makoto rolled to his back again, completely taken by that expression. Oof -- the bed had a wet spot from where Makoto had come, but it didn’t matter in the larger scheme of things. He reached up for Sousuke and pulled him into another long kiss. This time, Makoto’s hands slid everywhere, over the thick bunched muscles of Sousuke’s arms, down to cup his bottom, up his chest…

“Sousuke. I haven’t told you yet today how much I really, really _like you_ ,” Makoto said, bringing their foreheads together with his hands cupped around Sousuke’s jaw. “I want you in me. I want to be in you. But you already are in my heart.”

Sousuke went still above him, and then joined their lips again, kissing slowly and sweetly for a long moment. “You’re ridiculous,” he said, pulling back and huffing out his breath. “Now I just want to buy you flowers and hold your hand.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed. Oops, wrong mood. So he lifted his knees up to his ribs and shifted to give Sousuke room to play… “Should I lie like this for you?” He looked up at Sousuke, eyes soft.

~

That Makoto. From one mood to another, this type of sex was erasing any past memory of what sex was like. If Sousuke had been wearing a shirt, he would’ve gripped the fabric over his heart, but instead he stared down… Makoto was lying there looking simultaneously innocent and debauched, with come all over the bite marks on his stomach, his cheeks flushed, and his ass still wet from all the licking. But his eyes… they were glowing with utter, complete trust, and it made Sousuke want to howl.

“On second thought put the pillow back over your head. I have to do painful things to you, and I can’t watch your expression while I do it,” Sousuke said, shaking his head and opening up the lube.

Makoto laughed, his smile making his face illuminate with far too much sweetness. “I...I kind of like the pain. Especially if it’s from you.”

Damn. Sousuke closed his eyes for a moment. Rin told him once what it was like when Haru topped him. _It’s like all of his intense energy is focused, all on me. I feel like the most powerful person on earth._ He’d never understood Rin’s romantic ideas about bottoming, but suddenly it all fell into place. Makoto had all the power. 

“Then.” Sousuke trickled oil all over Makoto’s dick, and down over his opening, reaching down to rub and massage and stretch. Makoto’s little moans began again, and Sousuke leaned forward on his free hand to let his lips rest against Makoto’s heart. “Will you help me? Get yourself hard again.”

Makoto chuckled. “I’m almost there, Sousuke…”

And Sousuke felt a hand slide against the lump in his own underwear at the same time that he saw one close around Makoto’s half-hard dick.

“Ahhh -- I want to see you too, though,” Makoto said, his lips in Sousuke’s hair. Sousuke felt fingers push down his underwear, far enough to reveal him. Then Makoto’s strong hands pushed him up and away for a second, and Sousuke’s underwear slid below his hips. 

“Makoto, do you like what you see?”

Makoto was staring. “It’s the first time I’ve seen someone else erect. I don’t know what to say. I want it -- I want you IN me.” Makoto’s tone was so hungry and expression suddenly so fierce that Sousuke felt it like a livewire through his nerves. 

“I’ll hurry it up then,” Sousuke replied, and it was nearly a growl. His tongue went to a nipple and he lapped over it, then pushed in with his thick middle finger to spread Makoto open.

Makoto went still beneath him, but after a few moments of labored breathing, Sousuke felt Makoto’s hips shift and lift. “It burned a little. Now it’s good. Please p-put more in.”

Sousuke glanced up and saw the water at the corner of Makoto’s eyes. He steeled his emotions and spread him apart more, one finger thrusting in, then two, easing through the tight muscles. He spread oil everywhere, working everything open, and finally pushed far enough back that he felt the bunched mass of Makoto’s spot, almost as far back as he could reach. He pressed down with his fingertips and began to rub it.

“-- That feels weird --” Makoto gasped, and then he felt Makoto’s dick harden all the way up. “No -- that feels really --”

It was so good to watch Makoto’s face as Sousuke rubbed inside of him, caressing until Makoto’s sounds turned to outright moans again, his dick leaking just a little from the top.

“Almost ready.” Sousuke sat up again, pulling out his fingers and reaching for the condom. He put it on and doused himself with a liberal amount of oil too. Then he pushed his fingers back into the heat of Makoto’s body, watching Makoto’s expression as Sousuke played with him a bit longer. There was seriously nothing cuter than seeing that face melt as Sousuke found his spot again. 

“I think -- I could come again -- right now,” Makoto moaned.

“Roger that,” Sousuke said, and drew his fingers out. Then he leaned over Makoto’s beautiful body, positioned himself with a hand, and pushed himself slowly inside. He leaned down and joined their lips together, feeling Makoto’s breath huff into his mouth. When he’d pushed in as far back as he could go, he stopped, resting their foreheads together and simply breathing with Makoto.

There were fingers digging hard into his upper arms. Sousuke chuckled, feeling his body shaking a little too. “Your body took me in all the way,” Sousuke whispered against Makoto’s lips. “You feel hot all around me. I want to melt in you.”

~

“Sousuke -- Sousuke -- move --” Makoto moaned, blinking back the tears in the corners of his eyes from the strange yet good (yet strange) burn.

Then Makoto felt Sousuke move. He didn’t know quite what to do except ride it out -- maybe someday, when he was better at this, he’d figure out something clever to do with his hands … but for now he simply gripped onto Sousuke’s shoulders, kept his knees back, and felt every inch of Sousuke inside of him. Sousuke was in him, deep in him, and the place Sousuke played with had gotten so sensitive that whenever his erection pushed past it, Makoto felt a hot, strange jolt that went straight to his balls. It was nothing he’d ever felt before, and he was so wide-open and vulnerable…

And then, looking up, Makoto met Sousuke’s eyes. They were full of emotion. Not just heat or desire, but tenderness too. That look ran through Makoto’s body like a magic spell, releasing any remaining tension, and suddenly he felt that he could move too. Wrapping his legs around Sousuke’s waist he took him all the way inside again -- and then they were moving together, well and truly _fucking_.

There was something incredible about Sousuke’s stamina, too. Joining their bodies over and over felt slightly like torture, slightly like bliss, but Sousuke went slowly enough, gently enough, and for long enough that Makoto actually got accustomed to it. After a long, slow build of feeling from that spot deep inside of Makoto, he realized that if Sousuke was able to hit it _just right, just long enough_ , Makoto could probably come from that feeling alone. He realized this seconds before he felt his erection ache and heat up, and he suddenly knew he was close. Was this rare? Surely men didn’t come just from this, not on their first try. 

But Sousuke was grinning above him, eyes closed in concentration. 

“W-what -- is it --” Makoto moaned, nails digging hard into the skin of Sousuke’s back. 

“I can’t believe it. I can feel you almost there because we fit together so well -- so well --” Sousuke’s words were low gasps too, and he pushed harder into Makoto, and then again, hard -- and again --

Makoto began to shake, and after another of those hard pushes, he felt his body open right up again. “Yes -- SOUSUKE -- I’m -- AAHH --”

~

Looking down, Sousuke saw Makoto’s body arch and rise from the sheets, his mouth wide and eyes squeezed shut. A second later, Makoto tightened hard around Sousuke and wetness splashed against his stomach. Sousuke felt a moment of profound gratefulness that somehow, their bodies fit so perfectly that Makoto was able to feel it, feel _that_. Maybe it was that they matched in their desire for a certain pace and angle, or maybe because they were of a size... But then Makoto was pulling Sousuke along with him, the tightness making Sousuke’s control impossible. 

Well, fine -- they had all night to play -- Sousuke let go of his control, leaning down to find Makoto’s chin with his teeth as he thrust in one more time. The orgasm broke over him in a wild heat, and he found he was crying out Makoto’s name. It rang in his ears after he let himself collapse onto Makoto’s chest, suddenly more grateful than he could say that Makoto could easily support his weight.

Makoto’s legs were still wrapped around him, but the hands had gone from rough to gentle, and they were in Sousuke’s hair, sliding down his neck to ease his back...and Makoto spoke words into his ear, soft words. When his mind cleared, he could finally listen, and what he heard made him smile like he’d won a competition.

Makoto kissed the sweat trickling down his face.

“I’ve never felt that way before. I had no idea. Sousuke, I love you. I love you too.”

~

The sheets were in the dryer. Sousuke and Makoto sat at Haruka’s table, eating the mid-morning breakfast of rice, miso, and mackerel that Haruka had left them. (The note from Rin wished Sousuke luck and said that Haruka had left food in the fridge. The note from Haru said, “I give my blessing, Makoto, but if Yamazaki hurts you, I’ve read about ways to torture people with water.") 

Their friends were due over at any moment.

Makoto pillowed his chin on his hand and glanced over at Sousuke, feeling lassitude aching down every muscle of his body. He gave Sousuke a lazy grin.

“Quit that.”

“Hm? What am I doing?” Makoto asked, shifting to stretch. His bottom felt sore, but a really nice kind of sore.

“Seducing me.”

Makoto bit his lip, reaching for but failing to put on a serious expression. Instead, he dissolved into laughter and crawled around the table, shoving Sousuke’s back down onto the tatami.

“I never got to try out the other way,” Makoto said with mock annoyance, throwing a leg over Sousuke’s hips to keep him down, gripping his wrists to the floor.

“Hey -- my breakfast.” Sousuke in turn pretended to struggle. “It’s not my fault that after we came for the third time, we both fell asleep.”

“It’s definitely your fault that you didn’t want to let me top after that first time!”

“It’s your fault that you’re able to come just from me being inside you! Do you know how turned on that makes me --”

Makoto shut him up with a kiss, and several moments later, that position was exactly how Rin and Haruka found them -- but their shirts were off again.

“Hm,” Haruka said to Rin, surveying them from the door, “You said they’d stay up all night and wake up late.”

“We did stay up all night,” Sousuke said, glancing up with the cockiest smirk in the universe, removing his hand from Makoto’s ass. “But we also woke up early.”

Rin was still hiding his eyes behind his hand. “Oh god. Haru -- let’s leave them alone and go swim.”

“You might be right, Rin.”

“Sorry! Haru!” Makoto’s cheeks were pink, and he hid them against Sousuke’s chest.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s clear that you two aren’t done.”

Makoto unhid his face enough to peek out at his old friend. “Haru. Thank you.”

The second they were gone, Sousuke slid his hand down Makoto’s back to finger his tailbone. “So you were about to ride me, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end.
> 
> ~
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm on Tumblr, showa-sensei, if you wanna come share SouMako love. :)


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I wonder what would happen if Makoto came out?" I thought. 
> 
> And then a friend asked for underwear porn and this occurred.

It was insidious, unstoppable, and happened every week. The ridiculous part was that Makoto couldn’t even comment on it because it was so public. There they were in the Samezuka locker room after joint practice, changing from their swimsuits to their clothes, when he’d see _it_. A new pair of underpants, neatly folded, tucked into his clothing. The other (worse? better?) part was that his old underpants were invariably gone. 

Makoto knew exactly what was going on. Every week he put on the new underwear and glanced sideways at Sousuke, who was busy changing too. Sousuke wouldn’t meet his eyes at first, but eventually he did, and the glance became the barest smirk as Sousuke’s eyes traveled south and lingered there. Makoto gritted his teeth, giving Sousuke the slightest glare of disbelief, because _boyfriend or not_ there was surely something just a little challenging about doing this in the full view of everyone. 

Haruka noticed, of course, and looked from Makoto to Sousuke and back. Then he rolled his eyes, shaking his head the tiniest bit before pointedly turning away. That was as good as an hour-long teasing session in their friendship, and it made Makoto fight back a full-body blush.

Makoto’s best friend wasn’t the only one to notice, though. Makoto’s mother also realized something was amiss after spotting the fourth new pair in the laundry.

“My, your taste in underwear has changed, Mako-chan,” she said one day, holding up a sea-blue set that looked just a touch sheer.

Crap, Makoto thought. “Ah -- yeah, the smaller briefs are...cooler in the summer.” 

“Hmm. I see.” Tachibana-okaasan hesitated just a moment before continuing. “It’s not that you have a girlfriend, is it? Because these are a little more grown-up than you used to wear.”

They were. It wasn’t that the bikini-cut briefs exuded sex, but they were a lot more like a Speedo and a lot less like a normal pair of men’s boxers. They were usually plain in print, but they made the most out of every part of Makoto, and wearing them felt just a little like showing off. 

Makoto felt caught by that question, and hung his head. That was one hurdle that he and Sousuke hadn’t crossed yet, coming out to their respective families, and he wasn’t sure when it would be wise to, either. 

Tachibana-okaasan was still staring at him, though, her eyes a little sad. “Tell us whenever you’re ready to, Mako-chan. You know we’ll support you. Your papa and I … well, you know how young we were when we had you. A high school romance sometimes becomes the love of your life. And grandchildren are always welcome.”

Feeling slightly freaked out, Makoto nodded. “O-okay,” Makoto said, and beat the hastiest retreat in the history of retreats. He texted Haruka immediately, though.

[You know the, uh, gifts Sousuke has been leaving me? Mom thinks I have a girlfriend, and kind of implied that we should get married and give her grandchildren.]

[Just keep them here, I’ll wash them.] 

Makoto stared at the reply. Leave it to Haruka to completely suck the drama out of any situation. Still, it was a kind offer.

[Thanks but no thanks. Suspect that the other two wouldn’t understand if you were washing my underwear for me.]

[I used to when you wet the bed.]

[THIS IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT. Anyway. What should I do about it?]

[Talk to your boyfriend, obviously.]

Makoto sighed. Fine, yes, true. It was just… the game had gotten far deeper than he’d expected, and he didn’t want to saddle Sousuke with this kind of baggage. Still… 

“Heading to Haru’s house for a second,” Makoto called to his mom.

“I see,” Tachibana-okaasan called back, watching him leave with a thoughtful look in her eye.

Makoto plopped down on the steps halfway up to Haruka’s house. The second he sat, his little white friend appeared, and Makoto stroked the cat absently as he dialed Sousuke.

“-- No, it’s mine,” Makoto heard Sousuke’s voice say, “YES this song suits him, shut the fuck up.”

“Er, hello?”

“Oh, sorry. Endless teasing as always.” Sousuke sounded just a little done, and Makoto chuckled, wondering what his dialtone song was.

“Hey. I just wanted to say a few things. I wish I could say them to you in person, but we have so much studying right now…”

Makoto heard silence for a moment, and then Sousuke’s voice went cautious. “Is everything okay?”

“Well…” Makoto took a breath, and then told Sousuke the story of his evening, complete with the future scenario of a high school marriage and grandkids.

There was more silence on the other end of the line for a moment, and Makoto bit his lip. Had that been way too much? 

Then he heard a low chuckle.

“If this is your way of letting me know that you’re pregnant, Makoto, never fear. I have every intention of taking responsibility.”

“Sousuke!” How could the guy make Makoto blush over the phone, from such a distance? “That’s not even possible.” … Wait, was it? If Pangaea actually was real in some distant past, then…

“Makoto.” Sousuke’s voice was affectionate. “I will come over and properly greet your parents this time, as your boyfriend. If you like?”

Turning every shade of pink, Makoto considered it. “I thought maybe we could wait, but … my mom’s imagination would probably get worse and worse. So...yes. Maybe this coming Saturday after practice?”

They made the date, and when Makoto hung up, he noticed Haruka hovering over him on the steps, apron on, ladle balanced carefully in one hand.

“I heard your voice and wondered why you didn’t come in.”

“Did you hear our conversation?”

“Yes. Good luck. I think your parents will accept him, maybe more than I have.”

Makoto chuckled and stood, sighing, watching the cat nudge his leg. Then he smacked his forehead with his palm. “Crap, crap, crap. I forgot to tell him to stop with the underwear!”

“You could make him see how it feels.”

Makoto stared at Haruka. “Eh?”

“Buy him a new pair of tiny underpants too. See how it feels to put that sort of thing on in public. Every time he makes you do it, I sense more and more of the Samezuka team questioning their orientation.”

“Hardly,” Makoto said, smacking Haruka’s shoulder, and then blanched. “The idea sounds good, but then I’d have to go buy some. In a store.” He couldn’t imagine it, having to purchase vaguely sexy underwear from someone. Wouldn’t they judge him?

“Makoto. I’ll join you. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact,” Haruka’s voice turned thoughtful. “Maybe I’ll get something for Rin…”

“If it’s a pair with the word ‘shark’ across the bottom, he already owns those. I saw him in them last week.”

~

Saturday after practice, Makoto pulled the new, neatly-folded pink underwear out of his bag and pulled them on without a second thought. He was listening hard, though, and a second later he heard Sousuke’s rustling come to a surprised stop. He didn’t glance behind him, and pretended all was normal as he pulled on his shirt and pants. 

Take some of _that_ , Sousuke, Makoto thought with a bit of smugness.

When Makoto was finished getting ready, he turned, seeing Sousuke already waiting for him with his hands pushed far into his pockets. Ah, there it was, the faintest blush over Sousuke’s cheeks.

“Ready?” Makoto asked, smiling. It was almost time for a life-altering event, and some part of Makoto wondered how different things would be in a few short hours.

“Mhm.” Sousuke furrowed his brow, and they headed out. “It’s quite a revenge, I must say. Making me wear these to meet your parents,” Sousuke murmured it quietly, and Makoto glanced down to see Sousuke’s fingers fidgeting in his pockets. It made Makoto wish that he’d watched Sousuke put them on.

“Ah, do they feel strange? I’m sorry. The fabric might’ve been a miscalculation. I was really only thinking of how they’d look on you.” Makoto spared a sideways glance at Sousuke, his eyes just a touch teasing.

“Well.” Sousuke hesitated, shifting around for a moment. “The silkiness...I’m used to cotton. It’s rubbing against me strangely, and I might get...”

“Oh, no! Well, if you have to change, I have your old ones…”

“No. I like the thought that I’m wearing something you bought just for me.” Sousuke tipped his chin down and smiled bashfully, and Makoto felt his heart melt.

“Still, if it gets to be too much…”

“I’ll let you know. After...”

“After,” Makoto agreed, feeling all the anxiety of the past few days welling up inside of him. He’d tried to concentrate on Haruka’s words and trust that his parents were not so shallow that they’d throw him out, but… at the same time, wasn’t there always a chance?

Sousuke stopped and gathered Makoto to his side under one arm. Sousuke’s smell was instantly calming, and Makoto leaned against him.

“I am with you.” Sousuke rested his cheek on Makoto’s hair. “We’ll do this together.”

~

There was silence from the other side of the table. Makoto kept his head bent, and saw out of the corner of his eye that Sousuke’s head was equally bent, fists on the ground. It almost looked like an apology, but Makoto knew it for what it was -- acceptance of any consequences that might come.

“Well, ummmm,” Tachibana-otousan said after a moment. “This is embarrassing, Mako-chan, but we expected as much after we saw you and Haru-chan kissing when you were five.”

“And remember, Makoto said he was going to marry Haru-chan for a while?” Tachibana-okaasan added thoughtfully.

“Mom, dad, this isn’t about Haru!” Makoto almost wailed, covering his face with his hands. “Besides, I only said that because Haru said he’d make me pizza every night!”

Sousuke couldn’t help laughing, all the tension draining out of him after those words. Grinning, he glanced sideways. “I’ve never heard those stories...” Sousuke said.

“Ahhh, I have MANY stories to share with the handsome boyfriend of my son,” Tachibana-okaasan said, scooting a little closer to Sousuke with a grin on her face.

“MOM!” Makoto squeaked. He’d thought the worst-case scenario was going to be exile from the household; instead, it was THIS. RIGHT HERE. 

“I’ll hear about it later, if you don’t mind?” Sousuke answered, smiling in such a genuinely happy way that Tachibana-okaasan blinked and sighed. “But now, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take Mako- _chan_ out for a walk and calm him down.”

Glaring from his equally blushing father to his starry-eyed mother to his wicked-faced boyfriend, Makoto huffed out an exasperated breath. “Just remember that I get to meet YOUR family someday,” he warned.

~

They walked up to the shrine on the hill and leaned against the railing, looking out across the town at the water, not talking about anything for a moment. Makoto could feel Sousuke’s happiness radiating out of him in a quiet warmth and stood close, letting it warm him up and calm him down.

As far as life-altering scenarios went, this one probably had the best possible outcome. Makoto felt profoundly grateful for a moment, and closed his eyes to send up a heartfelt message of thanks to the gods of the shrine that protected the little city.

Then, Sousuke reached out and gripped Makoto’s hand. He was trembling just a little, and Makoto turned his head in surprise.

“Eh? Are you okay?” Makoto asked. And then, “Ohhhh -- right.” He suppressed his smirk but felt just a touch gleeful that he’d managed to make Sousuke lose his composure.

Sousuke sagged to a crouch on the ground, his hand sliding to grip Makoto’s shirt. “We have nowhere to be alone, anymore, do we?” Sousuke’s voice was so low it was almost a growl. “It’s not like your parents are going to let me drag you to your room for…”

“Ah, um. Well…” Makoto hesitated, and then pulled out his phone.

~

Haruka’s eyes slid past Sousuke’s at the door, then met Makoto’s. “I’m glad it went well with your parents. But I probably should’ve seen THIS coming. I’ll be at the Iwatobi pool. Back in a few hours.”

“Thank you, Haru!” Makoto bit his lip, feeling Sousuke’s fingers lingering on the curve of his back.

“Thanks, Nanase.” Sousuke smiled the slightest bit.

“It’s for his sake.”

“I know.”

Not a minute later they were in Haruka’s guest bedroom, and Makoto’s back was against the door. “So, these underwear are just a little small,” Sousuke said, gripping one of Makoto’s wrists. The first kiss felt hungry and urgent, so Makoto brought his hand immediately down to the front of Sousuke’s pants, running his thumb up the half-hard bump until he felt it grow and swell against him. Makoto’s mouth opened up to his boyfriend’s too, and for a long moment there was nothing but a mutual building of tension in slow rubs and deepening kisses, until Sousuke was gasping.

Makoto broke loose from the hand that pinned him and firmly moved Sousuke backward. The futons were not out, but they didn’t really have time to fuss with them, so Makoto simply undid Sousuke’s pants. “Let me do it, today,” he said, staring down at the buttons of Sousuke’s fly. They rarely had time for sex, so they hadn’t been able to do much so far… but Makoto wanted desperately to give back a little of the pleasure Sousuke had given him the last time.

“Yes,” Sousuke groaned in a heartfelt agreement, and rushed undoing the buttons to push his pants off the rest of the way. Stepping out of them, he stood still in front of Makoto.

The sight took Makoto’s breath away. The thin fabric of the underwear left not much to the imagination, and the silk was even the slightest bit wet at Sousuke’s tip. Makoto got to his knees, letting his hands explore for a moment. The fabric felt even better over Sousuke’s bottom, as soft as the muscles were firm beneath. 

With his own moan, Makoto dove in, keeping the short, silky briefs on while he rubbed his face all over Sousuke’s erection. Nose, lips, cheek… it felt so good to rub against the silk that it almost short-circuited Makoto’s animal brain. Then he closed his mouth around the fabric over Sousuke’s tip and sucked it experimentally. Ah -- there. Hands closed into his hair and the solid body twitched beneath his mouth.

“-- Makoto -- I didn’t know that -- you’d want to --”

“Eh? Of course,” Makoto replied, blinking up with hunger in his eyes. He concentrated again, running his tongue along all the parts of Sousuke that made his gasps louder, wetting the silk until it clung to his skin.

“Even if these are tight, I really...really like them on you,” Makoto said huskily. “Maybe you can wear them when we go out on dates?”

“Maybe only if we stay _in_ on dates,” Sousuke replied just as huskily, biting his lip as he looked down.

“Fair enoummmf.” Makoto let his words be muffled again. He had to see, up close, what was under that… He slid the crotch of the briefs to one side and uncovered Sousuke’s balls. Ooh. Slowly, with his tongue as wide as he could make it, he let it linger over the sensitive skin.

“NNh -- aah --” Fingers clenched in his hair. Looking up, Makoto saw Sousuke’s face flushed and his eyes hazy, a very nice look on him indeed. Meeting Sousuke’s eyes, he opened his mouth again and thanked god he was a big guy, because he was able to fill his mouth entirely with Sousuke’s balls...

“W-wait, I need to lie down or lean or s-something Makoto you’re --” Sousuke moaned, and Makoto pulled away long enough to tug him to the floor. He didn’t remove the underwear though, but pushed them down just enough to lick along Sousuke’s bare erection first. God, the musky scent -- it was overwhelmingly hormonal from an hour or two in the silky underwear, and Makoto felt his own erection twitch just from that. The taste, too…

Makoto slid Sousuke’s erection more fully into his mouth and let his fingers gather at the base, around the wet and silky fabric. Using the underwear to add to the feeling, he stroked upward to meet his mouth.

“How is it that you -- know how to -- drive me crazy?” Sousuke gasped, his eyes flashing as he leaned back on his arms.

“I have a LOT of fantasies about you,” Makoto replied, smiling sheepishly up at Sousuke.

“Makoto -- I love you,” Sousuke said, covering up his face for a moment. Makoto’s reply was muffled by a wet sucking sound when he pulled Sousuke back into his mouth.

 _I love you too,_ Makoto thought, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Sousuke’s as he took that hard erection halfway into his mouth again. It felt good too, to have Sousuke there, clearly turned on and completely at his mercy. Makoto controlled his pace, his mouth slow and steady, his hands stroking the fabric of the underwear upward just as steadily… watching Sousuke’s body arch and writhe in front of him until his fingers clawed at Makoto’s arm muscles. 

And then Sousuke swelled to get even bigger in Makoto’s mouth, and he felt the throbbing of a vein right beneath his tongue. It made Makoto squirm even more to feel it. He responded by chasing the feeling with his tongue, bearing down and sucking up again with a wet thwap...

“Makoto -- NNH -- I’m coming --” Sousuke gasped, and thrust himself upward through Makoto’s lips.

Now THAT was a different feeling. But Makoto felt all of his affection overwhelm him when Sousuke just -- abandoned any control and let go, feeling the warm liquid squirt into Makoto’s mouth. It was fine, really. So Makoto swallowed reflexively, and then pressed his lips in a gentle kiss against the still-wet tip. Smiling up, he saw Sousuke’s eyes gazing at him again with just a hint of disbelief.

“First time, right? Are you sure you didn’t practice that with Nanase? Any more stories your parents should tell me?”

Makoto thwapped the side of Sousuke’s thigh. “Mentioning my friend’s name at a moment like this! Quiet, you, if you ever want another one of those!”

“Yes sir!” Sousuke laughed, and then flopped bonelessly back to the ground, giving Makoto a look of sheer appreciation. He held out his arms, and Makoto climbed over him to settle down on top of him.

After a long, sweet kiss that still tasted of Sousuke, Makoto felt hands slide down his back to cup his bottom.

“Now,” Sousuke said, “You’re wearing too many clothes, and I believe you also have on a pair of underwear that I’d like to observe a little more closely...”

Feeling a glow of happiness so profound it made his chest ache, Makoto sat up and pulled his shirt off with one tug. “I’m all yours.”


End file.
